The Shinobi of Beacon
by SenorCheesecake
Summary: [DEAD, SEE CHAPTER 31 FOR DETAILS] When Naruto attempts to return to Konoha, he takes a risky shortcut. And when your risky shortcuts involve inter-dimensional portals, things can spin a little out of control. And as such, Naruto finds himself stranded on another world, with no way to return home. So, what's the first thing any sane person would do? Go to school, of course.
1. Chapter 1: The Arrival

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY. I just steal the characters and manipulate them as I see fit. For Science.**

* * *

Chapter 1: The Arrival

Once more, for the third time that day, a boy in orange and a toad could be seen fighting one another. They were in an area dotted with tall, rocky spires. While to many it would seem strange for this boy to be fighting a toad, the both of them knew better.

For both the boy and the toad had a specific goal in mind: training the boy to be better at Sage Mode. Even from a distance, it was clear the boy didn't look normal. He was covered with toad-like features, indicating a less-than-perfect transformation.

The toad, meanwhile, had had decades of practice to perfect his own Sage Mode, on top of already being a toad. It was obvious that the boy couldn't even come close to the toad's power. And so, for the third time that day, one could also see the boy lose to the toad in combat, as he was slammed into one of the many rocky spires around them. He nearly fell all the way to the ground, but for the toad sage catching him halfway down.

"Not bad, Naruto-boy," said the toad, in an obvious attempt to lighten the boy's spirits.

"Ya know, you don't have to lie to my face like that, Geezer-Sage," answered the boy. It was made clear by his tone that he wasn't discouraged in the least, but rather driven even further by seeing how strong the toad was.

"Nonsense, Naruto-boy," the 'Geezer-Sage' resumed. "You've made great progress in your Sage Mode transformation. Why, even Jiraiya-boy took years to get to this point, and you've done it in only about a week."

Naruto blushed a little from the praise, and mumbled something about how he could never match the 'Pervy-Sage,' who seemed to be Jiraiya. The toad, Fukasaku, smiled at the high regard with which Naruto held his teacher. Despite the nickname, which itself was said with love and affection, Naruto was amazed to hear about all the things Jiraiya had done.

"So, how long do you think it will take for me to master it?" came the sudden question. Fukasaku was a little taken aback. Naruto didn't usually seem to want to know things like that, how long it would take to do something. He usually seemed to just accept that they would take time.

"Well, Naruto-boy, at your current rate, I'd say it should only take ya a week more. With my help of course," the toad replied proudly. "Why do ya want ta know, anyways?

Naruto just shook his head. "I've just got this feeling, like somethings going badly somewhere, and I could help," he said, closing his eyes.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Leaf Village, the god known as Pain was blowing thine enemy to tiny bits. There were people dying in every way, from being crushed and eaten to literally having their soul torn from their body.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes, saying, "Oh, well. It's probably just a feeling. Nothing to worry about."

Fukasaku nodded. "Of course not, Naruto-boy. The Leaf Village would tell us if anything had happened. If ya like, we could have Ma summon us there for a bit, just to check," he said, sure of the blonde's answer.

As he expected, the blonde's eyes lit up, and he began vigorously nodding his head. The toad spoke again, "Alright. Although, something to cover all the dirt on your back first. Oh, I know. Come with me, Naruto-boy."

Minutes later, Naruto had a new haori to wear to the Leaf Village. He got the feeling that Fukasaku had made it specifically for him. It was dark red, but with a black flame pattern at the end of it. Also, it seemed to be made of a rather durable material. It would take a truly hard hit to rip it. He had to admit, he looked awesome.

He couldn't wait to see the look on his friends faces when he showed up.

* * *

"They want me to summon them near the Leaf Village?" asked the female toad to the messenger toad. The messenger toad nodded.

' _Very well,'_ thought Shima. _'Must be some kind of paranoia.'_

It didn't take long to find a good spot to summon them. There was a small clearing nearby, bare of any grass at all. But, as she started the handsigns, she saw a pillar of smoke coming from Konoha. She stopped, and simply stared at it, horrified. She was very quick to get closer. It only took her about a minute to traverse the forest between where she was and the destroyed village.

At the top of the wall, she saw Konohagakure being demolished by all manner of things. There was a rhino, a chameleon, a bull, a centipede, and others. She knew what it meant.

Pain.

* * *

"What's taking her so long?" thought the toad, out loud. Naruto nodded in agreement. It had been nearly a half hour since the messenger toad had left, and they still hadn't been summoned.

The messenger came back, confused when he saw them there. He told them that Shima had started the handsigns while he was leaving. At this point, Naruto and Fukasaku were both deeply concerned.

"Alright then," said the toad, abruptly. "I didn't want to use it, but Naruto-boy, we're going through the pond." Naruto stared at him as if he had gone insane.

"Oh right," the toad continued. "I never told ya about that. See, we have a small shrine near Konoha that holds what we call the Distant Body Water. If ya jump through it, you'll end up in the shrine to it that we have here. And it works two ways, see."

Naruto nodded with understanding. Then he furrowed his brow, asking, "Then why didn't we use it already?"

"It doesn't always work for people," the sage explained. "In fact, only those who can use Toad Sage Mode or are already toads can use it. And for humans, it's unpredictable. They say it was created by the first great elder himself."

Naruto looked amazed, as if he wanted to see it right away, like a child who had been told about a new toy. "Well, let's go then!" he shouted, running off. He returned very soon. "Where is it?"

* * *

The shrine was very small. It was just a stone foundation with a small bowl on it for the pond. And the pond was rather small. Naruto would have trouble fitting through it. But still, he thought he could make it through.

"Alright Naruto-boy, you first," said the toad. Naruto stepped forward, and stared into the water. It was very still, like no one had ever touched it. There were no ripples, just his reflection. His feeling came back, stronger than before, and he jumped into the water.

And promptly fell flat on his face.

Brushing himself off, he got up and looked around. He didn't recognize the area he was in. Unlike what Fukasaku had told him, there was no other shrine here. In fact, there wasn't even a forest. As far as he could tell, he was in a destroyed city.

The buildings- which towered above him- were barren and empty, riddled with cracks. He was stood on some kind of black earth, which was also cracked and broken. There was rubble littering the streets, and no one in sight. And a sense of danger. Not much danger, but as if he should be on his guard, like he was expecting to be attacked.

He didn't know where he was, but he knew for certain it wasn't anywhere near the Leaf Village. The architecture of the buildings revealed that much. He had never even seen buildings so tall, except for the one time he had seen a picture of Amegakure. Even then, the buildings had seemed much smaller, and much differently designed. They had looked like a collection of pipes, while these buildings looked as if someone had just made a really tall house.

As he stood there, he noticed movement at the end of the road. He looked again, but saw nothing. He sprinted to the corner, just fast enough to catch sight of someone turning a corner not too far from where he was. He noted that the person was very slow. They also had seemed to be wearing some kind of white armor. Perhaps one of those Samurai from the Land of Iron? Except that the armor hadn't covered them completely. It had only been around their torso.

He decided to let up on the speed a little, to get them to lower their guard. He also removed his hitai-ate. Didn't need them knowing he was a ninja if he wanted them to underestimate him, right? He turned the same corner they had, just in time to see a door close. It was clearly closed slowly, so as to not make noise.

He walked up to it, a look of curiosity on his face, as he did his best to look like a kid who saw something interesting. He opened the door, only to see that he was in a destroyed hotel lobby. That, and he had three… things pointed at him. He wasn't sure what they were, but they seemed to be weapons of some kind, given how their wielders were trying to get him to stay back. He had looked down immediately upon entering, so as to look less threatening

"Alright, kid," a woman said. He noticed they were all wearing the same armor, looking upwards, meaning he was looking forwards. "Hands on your head, and kneel on the ground." Naruto complied, wondering where this would lead. But also, he had no idea what those weapons did. Best to be safe.

"Hey!" one of them shouted. "Look at us when we speak to you." Once again, Naruto complied, and looked up at them. They all immediately took a small step back, eyes widening in shock. The same man said, "Oh… sorry, kid. We didn't realize."

Naruto cocked his head, brow furrowed, staring at them in confusion. That's when he noticed that one of them had deer antlers, another had a dog tail, and the last one had rabbit ears. "What do you mean?" he asked them.

"We thought you were police or, like, a huntsmen. We didn't realize you were a Faunus," said the woman with the antlers. "What kind are you, anyways? The whiskers don't really tell much."

Naruto raised his hand to his whiskers. He thought he understood. These people thought he was this 'Faunus' thing that they clearly were on account of his whiskers. Although, if Faunus were what he suspected they were, then he technically was one.

"Uh… Fox," he answered, unsure of how they would respond. They looked at him a moment longer, before talking amongst themselves.

"Do you think he's related to Jim?" one of them asked. The man with the dog tail shook his head.

"Nah. Jim said he joined 'cause the Schnees killed his family," he responded.

Naruto was shocked to hear something like that. This person spoke of a man's entire family being killed so casually, he could almost be mistaken for a member of ANBU. But he also clearly wasn't a ninja.

"Right, right. Forgot about that," answered the girl with rabbit ears. This shocked Naruto even more. How do you forget something like that? He surmised that it must be common, which meant he had to be in ninja territory.

"Sorry about this, kid," the rabbit girl said to Naruto. "But protocol dictates we need to keep you here, since you've seen us."

Naruto didn't mind. She did seem genuinely upset by it, after all. He did have one thing he wanted to ask them, however, "Who are you guys?"

They stared at him blankly. At least, he assumed it was blank. They had some kind of masks on, so he couldn't see all of their faces. Then the dog-man spoke, "We're the White Fang. Surely you've heard of us?" They seemed disappointed at the lack of reaction from Naruto.

Then, Naruto remembered how he got here. He smacked his forehead for being so forgetful. He had been so distracted by everything around him.

"How do I get to Konohagakure from here?" he asked. They, once again, stared blankly.

"Where? That's not a name I've ever heard before," answered the deer-lady. "Are you ok, kid?"

He shook his head. "No. I've got to get back there right away!" He turned and ran out the door, ignoring the shouts for him to stop. He heard a loud bang of some kind, but ignored it since he was already halfway down the street.

"Wow. Of course the kid had some kind of speed semblance," said the dog-man, seeing the red-and-orange-clad boy run down the street at such high speeds. "What a shame. A Faunus that fast would have been useful."

* * *

It had been three weeks. Three whole weeks.

Naruto was in the middle of the wilderness, having gotten lost only minutes after leaving the city. Nothing terrifically eventful had happened in that time, other than Naruto heading towards the direction his instincts told him to go. Since the fox had an influence on his instincts, and his luck, he decided it would be best to follow them.

He wasn't disappointed. Three weeks and 4 days since he arrived in this strange land, he saw another city in the distance, this time not destroyed. He had been walking along the shore for over a day now. He wasn't thirsty, since he knew a jutsu to purify salt water, but he was hungry.

" **Kit"**

All of a sudden, Naruto was in a sewer. He groaned in annoyance.

"What do you want, ya damn fox? I'm busy," he shouted into the cage. He saw two red eyes appear in the darkness.

" **Do you remember the half-humans from weeks ago? How they called themselves and you a 'Faunus'?"**

"Yeah. What about it?"

" **Well, you are. If a Faunus is a half-human, half-animal, then you meet the criteria. Congrats Kit, you're not human, just like those villagers said,"** joked the fox. Naruto grimaced at the thought of them being right about him.

"Why does that matter? And more importantly, what do you mean? I thought the seal kept you separate from me," he asked the Bijuu. The fox chuckled.

" **The seal can't keep my influence away. Notice the whiskers? You can thank me for those, since they're there due to my influence on your birth,"** answered the Kyūbi.

Naruto stopped cold. He looked directly at the fox. "You knew my parents?" he asked, with desperateness in his voice. The fox was a little shocked, but still lied his way out of it.

" **No. I just know that I was right there all the way through your birth, Kit. My point is, you're a Faunus. I'm making fun of you, you stupid brat."**

Naruto seemed a little down at this, like he thought he was about to find out about his family. He ripped himself out of his mindscape, and continued to walk to the distant city.

Naruto felt like smacking himself. He could just summon a toad and ask them to summon him back to the Leaf Village, or even Mount Myōboku. He ran through the handsigns, overjoyed that he could finally get back to the village and his friends. He could also get another haori from Fukasaku. The one he had was still in perfect condition, but he wanted another one for when this one began to smell.

"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" he yelled. The familiar pulse of chakra, the blood on his thumb, the explosion of smoke, and the toad.

Who didn't appear.

The toad didn't appear.

Naruto fell to his knees. If no toads appeared, then he was in a place where summoning couldn't work. That was it. It had to be, He would just need to find a place where it would work. Simple. He stood, and continued walking to the entrance to the city. He was close now. He would get there within the hour.

* * *

"What do you mean, he isn't here?" yelled a familiar toad sage. "He went through first! He has to be here!"

"But he's not, Pa. He never came through," responded Shima, trying to calm her husband.

"Alright. A simple solution: We summon him," said the sage. He and his wife performed the technique in sync.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" They both called out. There was an explosion of smoke, but Naruto didn't appear.

"Oh, no," said Fukasaku. "If he didn't appear, then he's dead. How? Why? Was it the pond that did it?" he looked back at the pond. It had never killed anyone that went through it before, but there was a first time for everything.

* * *

"HEY, KID!" someone shouted. Naruto looked up at them. They stood above what seemed to be the entrance to the city. "What are you doing out there? What are you here for?"

"I just want to enter the city," Naruto called back. The guard, Naruto could tell even from here, rolled his eyes before he opened the gate. Naruto walked through, marveling at the size of everything. Back home, the biggest building was the Hokage's Mansion. This city had huge buildings many times that size.

He wandered the streets for a while, staring up at everything, not even noticing the metal boxes that contained people that were passing by. Eventually, he walked out onto the street, just crossing it, when one of those metal boxes almost ran into him. He stared at in shock. It had wheels on it, and the person inside seemed to be controlling it with that wheel in front of him. Then it made a loud blaring noise.

Naruto covered his ears to block out the noise. He took them off again to hear the person shouting at him. "Get out of the way, you stupid Faunus brat!" Naruto got out of his way, stunned at the anger the man had displayed, when he could've just gone around the boy. He kept walking, looking around when someone with a monkey's tail walked up to him and handed him a flyer of some kind.

"If you want to fight for your rights, then come to the rally tomorrow," the woman said, before walking off again. Naruto didn't even have time to ask her what she was talking about before she did. He looked down at the paper she had given him, to see that it talked about something called the 'White Fang.' The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.

" **Wasn't that what that group called themselves, when you first arrived?"** he heard the fox ask. He realized he was right. He wondered what the group did, and why it seemed to be only Faunus that were in it. He also noted that the fox was rather talkative recently.

He kept walking, hoping to find somewhere he could spend the night that was fast approaching. He had his ryo with him, but he didn't know where any hotels were. When he finally found a food stand, he found out that his ryo was worthless here, and that these people used a currency called 'Lien.'

Luckily, the owner of the food stand was kind enough to trade Naruto a 'hot dog' for one of his ryo, because the owner liked collecting rare coins. Naruto had nothing against this strange food called a hot dog, but he wanted to find some ramen. He hadn't had any in weeks and weeks. He was worried about going into withdrawal.

He finally found a hotel some time later. When he walked in, the receptionist shrieked and screamed at him to get out, and that they didn't serve his filthy kind. Those were her exact words. He frowned with disappointment. It was like the Konoha villagers had been reincarnated into these people. Perhaps it was because he was just a teen.

But as he stood outside after being thrown out, he saw another teenager go in, and get served with kindness. Naruto frowned even further. It was very confusing. A girl walked up to him. She was wearing jeans, and a simple white shirt. She had goat horns on her head. She looked to be about his age.

She spoke to him, "Let me guess: They kicked you out?" He nodded. She seemed outraged. "It's so ridiculous! Just because of how we're born, they don't let us stay in this place! Racist assholes."

He was a little shocked at the sudden anger. One moment she had seemed so calm and collected, and now she was practically foaming at the mouth. He tried to calm her down, saying, "Woah, now. I'm not that upset by it. I think she could tell I didn't have money I can use here."

The goat-girl looked at him, almost with pity. "No money? Then what were you doing going into a hotel?" she asked him. He shrugged.

"Do you know if I can exchange ryo for Lien anywhere around here?" he inquired. She looked confused, clearly not recognizing the word.

"Ryo? What's that?" she asked. He told her it was his native currency. "Ohhh. You're foreign," she answered back. "Well, hello. I'm Lisa." She held out her hand. Naruto took it.

"I'm Naruto," he said. She giggled a little at the unusual name.

"Well, Naruto, Welcome to Vale."

* * *

Naruto wasn't sure what was more incredible: The airships or the buildings. On the one hand, people could fly. While he had heard of shinobi, and even met two of them, who could fly using various ninjutsu, these were transports that carried multiple people.

On the other hand, the buildings towered into the sky. He had learned they were called skyscrapers, and he could see why. It was as if they were capable of cutting a hole in the sky.

Other than that, he had learned that these people had what they called Aura, and with the Aura came a 'Semblance,' which Naruto could only liken to a kekkei genkai, but being unique to each person rather than each clan. He also heard people talk about 'Grimm' occasionally, but he had no idea what they meant. He had spent weeks in the wilderness, and never run across any.

' _ **That's thanks to me, brat. No doubt they're terrified of all the power and hatred I give off,'**_ thought one very smug fox.

Naruto had spent his days scavenging for food, since he had no money and had yet to find a place that would give him a job. He learned, very quickly, that humans looked down on Faunus. He found it out when he saw a man shove in front of a Faunus while in a line at a food court, and several people gave the _Faunus_ the stink-eye.

He felt outraged. It was no different from the Jinchūriki back home, and how they were treated as less than human because of something they couldn't control. He was even more frustrated, however, when he found out that the White Fang he had heard about was the only large Faunus civil rights group, and they had devolved into being little more than terrorists.

* * *

Naruto was very, very excited. Despite only being 16, and thus technically one year too young to attend, Naruto was accepted to try Beacon Academy's entrance exam. When he had found out that there was a school that could 'teach' him how to fight, and that he could be paid to fight afterwards, he immediately signed up. He just didn't think he would be allowed in.

He had decided to hide his actual abilities, and make it appear like he was an average fighter. He wanted to avoid awkward questions, like why he was probably better than some of the stronger people on this planet. He had decided that his agility would be the most useful ability he had, and wrote down speed as his semblance on the form, since teachers needed to know what the student's abilities were, for whatever reason.

So, he had a week before he would be tested on his ability to fight. To most, it was a week to prepare. To him, it was a week to warm up. He knew he could pass no matter what they threw at him.

And so, he decided to spend his week practicing his Sage Mode. After discreetly climbing a skyscraper, which wasn't much harder than climbing the Hokage Mountain, he sat down, cross-legged, and began to try to pull in Natural Energy. He was shocked to find that the Natural Energy here was different. That pretty much settled it. The suspicion he had had since a few days ago, when he saw the moon, was confirmed.

He wasn't on his own planet anymore.

* * *

 **HAHA! DRAMATICS!**

 **Yes, I decided to do a crossover of Naruto and RWBY. If this displeases you, keep something in mind: I don't care.**

 **In all seriousness, let me know what you think. If you liked this first chapter, let me know. If you hated everything about it, feel free to track me down and leave a long list of why it was bad. Or you could just leave a review. That would probably be the sensible course of action.**

 **Also, yes, this story will be updated** _ **very**_ **randomly. As opposed to my other stories, which receive updates every other Thursday, I will update this story as soon as I finish each chapter to it. Meaning that, depending on my motivation, there could be another chapter out as soon as the day after one went up, or it could take months. Just kidding. It would be years.**

 **Again, joking.**

 **Until Chapter 2: The Test!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Test

**Wow. This story did really,** _ **really**_ **well in just its first day. It's doing better than The Adopted Uchiha, and that story's been up for several weeks. Good Lord.**

 **Never mind, scratch that, etc. This story is doing better after only a day than A Lack of Faith is doing after over a month.**

 **Thank you all for all of the support. Thank you very,** _ **very**_ **much.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't have enough money to buy rights to Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 2: The Test

A week, while some may think otherwise, is a very short period of time. Before Naruto knew it, the day of his entrance exam was upon him. Since he had been notified of the date on which it would fall, he had spent his time trying to pull in the strange energy of this world, only to find that it was much more difficult due to both not being in a very natural place, such as Mount Myōboku, as well as how different the energy was here.

To Naruto, it felt more… polluted. He wasn't actually sure how to describe it. Polluted was the best he could come up with. The natural energy that he could feel felt similar to everything else in this world. It felt different, much more electronic and metallic. It like the city had changed it.

He tried going into the woods surrounding the city, and was pleased to find it felt more similar outside of the city to the energy at Mount Myōboku. Even still, the world was different, and its energy reflected this.

But these thoughts were in the back of Naruto's mind, as at the moment he was on an airship with a horde of other people, all of who would be taking the entrance test today. He walked about, trying to find someone to talk to. For some reason, most people he looked at seemed to back away as soon as he did.

There was, however, one girl who didn't. Instead, she walked up to him, as if she wanted to start a conversation. She was somewhat short in stature, standing at only about 5'3". She was dressed in a myriad of colors, every color from the rainbow on her.

She had on a T-shirt that went down the rainbow of colors from orange to green as it went lower, and a pair of form-fitting pants that started with the same shade of green and progressed to a dark indigo color, almost purple. She also had a deep red jacket on, with the sleeves going down to her wrists. She had boots up to her knees that were a purple hue.

Also, she had a massive sword on her back. Like, impractically large. It reminded Naruto of Kubikiribōchō, but without the holes in it.

She seemed very cheerful, as she was beaming up at him. Her smile almost seemed infectious, and Naruto couldn't help but smile back.

"HI!" she all but yelled. Her voice was somewhat high pitched, like a girl still growing. Despite that, Naruto could tell that she was at least his age.

He laughed a little. "Hey," he responded. She seemed overjoyed that he answered her.

"My name is Diana!" she continued, with the same cheerful tone. She was reminding Naruto a lot of Lee, with her energy and loudness. He smiled once again, reminded of Konoha. And then the fact that he wasn't able to find a way back there.

His face fell, still clearly upset by it. Diana didn't seem to notice it, and kept smiling away. Naruto's jovial mood was somewhat ruined now. He didn't really feel like making someone else feel bad on his account, and decided to wander off. He looked behind himself on occasion, and see her following him for a while. It was a little creepy.

Over time, she apparently found someone else to talk to. Naruto, on the other hand, found a corner where he could stew in his own thoughts, and be left to himself. He regretted it, but Konoha kept slipping out of his thoughts.

When he discovered that he couldn't even so much as summon a toad, he had kind of just given up hope. If he couldn't summon a toad, then they couldn't summon him, and he had basically no hope of returning to Konohagakure, unless he could somehow learn the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Raijin Jutsu), a feat no longer possible since this world didn't seem to have even the slightest notion of jutsu.

He sat with his legs crossed, looking down at the floor in front of him, oblivious to everything around him. As such, he failed to notice that buxom blonde walking over to him. She bent down right in front of him, not seeming to care of the gratuitous view of cleavage Naruto would have if he looked up.

"Hey, Blondie," she spoke with a tone that was playful and fun. "What ya looking down for?"

He looked up, expecting her face to be eye level with him, only to find himself staring at two different orbs. His mind went blank for a moment, before blushing heavily and looking up further to look her in the eyes.

She had a playful grin on her face, similar to his own, but with less mischievousness behind it. It was as if she didn't care about the fact that he was getting a view that any pervert would kill for. She was dressed in a very simple manner, with a brown jacket covering a yellow top, and very short black shorts with some kind of brown half-skirt. She had two metal bracelets around her wrists, which matched the shade of her top perfectly.

"Hey, Whiskers?" she spoke up, and until she did Naruto hadn't realized that he had been so lost in thought. "I don't mind the admiration, but you could at least try to be subtle about it."

He frowned, before realized he was staring at her assets once again. While he was trying to form a coherent sentence to apologize, she simply shrugged it off.

"So, what's your name?" he managed. She grinned at him again. "I'm Naruto."

"Yang Xiao Long," she answered. "Punching things extraordinaire."

Naruto was dumbfounded by the people in this world. Back home, everyone seemed so down all the time, with happiness only showing its face every so often. Here, people seemed so cheerful and bright all the time.

"'Punching things extraordinaire'? What?" he asked her. She sat next to him, with a nod of the head.

"That's right, Whiskers. No one punches like I do. Just wait and see!" she told him with confidence. He raised an eyebrow at her.

She responded with faux indignation, "What? You don't believe me?"

He chuckled to himself, shaking his head at her antics. She punched his arm, like they were just two friends joking around. And, to be fair, they kind of were.

"Nope," he answered, straight-faced. "I think you just go out with a…" he paused " _Yang_." He himself cringed at the bad pun. He waited for another punch to the arm.

But instead, Yang laughed uproariously, drawing the attention of everyone nearby. She was clutching her sides, clearly trying to not fall over.

When she finally stopped, she actually had to wipe away tears in her eyes. "Oh, that was good. And here I thought only I made those jokes. I like you, Whiskers," she choked out between trying to get her breath back.

Naruto could do little more than stare at this strange person next to him. He thought he had hit the peak of weirdness when he met Lee, but this gave weird a whole new definition.

"So," she started, getting Naruto's attention. "Where are you from?"

He paused, not knowing how to answer. The question had caught him off guard, so he ended up just staring at her again.

He eventually decided to just tell her he was from outside the Four Kingdoms. She nodded in understanding.

"It must have been rough out there," she said, pausing briefly. "I wouldn't know, I grew up on an island that has no Grimm on it."

Naruto looked at her again. "I've never actually seen a Grimm before," he muttered. Her jaw actually dropped slightly, and her eyes got really wide.

"NEVER!?" she yelled, once again attracting the attention of everyone nearby. At this point, they probably all thought she was insane. Naruto wasn't sure if he agreed or not.

"Nope, never seen a Grimm," he repeated. She looked shocked. He had learned that Grimm were apparently very common in the wild, but never actually had the displeasure of fighting one.

Getting away from the topic, he asked her a question that had been bothering him for a while now, "So, Yang?"

"Yep?"

"Huntsmen teams are always four people, right?"

"Yeah."

"So what if, say, 17 people make it into Beacon this year? What happens to the extra person?"

"I dunno," answered the blonde girl. He pinched his nose, and sighed. He looked back up at her, amusement written across his face. He was barely suppressing another small laugh.

This place just made him feel so jovial and happy. He didn't know what it was, the people or the world itself.

"What? It's not like I need to know," she said in response to his own.

"No, no. It's not that. This place is just so different from my home," he said.

"What was your home like, anyways? It can't have been all that peaceful outside the Kingdoms," she asked. He shook his head.

"No, it wasn't. We had several wars with other villages around us, and even after those we fought each other a lot," he spoke. "But we were very in tune with the world around us. Not like here, where everything is metal and electronic."

Yang was a little taken aback by the bitterness in his tone. He clearly preferred his home to here.

"Sorry if I brought up any bad memories, Whiskers," she apologized. He shook his head again.

"It's fine," he said. "It's probably all gone now anyways. It was being attacked when I left, I know it."

"But, then, why did you leave? If it was being attacked, you could've helped!" she said very loudly. At this point, no one actually bothered looking around for the noise.

"I was trying to get back to it, but I… got lost along the way. It was called Konohagakure," he said in a low voice.

She cocked her head to the side, never having heard the name before.

As she was about to ask, the same rainbow-colored girl sat down on the other side of him, still smiling wider than anyone he had ever met before.

"Hi again, friend!" she still had the same energy behind all of her words. "I lost you before, but then I found you again over here!"

Yang, having not met Diana yet, was still trying to process her. She was shaped similarly to the buxom blonde bruiser, but she was dressed in a rainbow. Yang blinked several times, and still had trouble getting her brain to restart.

"Yes, hi Diana," Naruto said with humor in his voice, threatening to take the form of a laugh. "Where have you been, anyways?"

"I was meeting a new friend!" she seemed incapable of speaking quieter than a dull roar. Naruto looked at Yang, getting a good laugh at her wide eyes. She punched him in the arm again.

"Hey, Diana? Do you know what happens if say, 19 people pass the entrance exam?"

"Nope!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

Yang looked back and forth between the two of them, as they just sat still, staring at one another. "Will you two just say something already?"

Naruto turned back to her, sheepishly, "Sorry 'bout that. She just sets me off balance with her… words."

All of a sudden, a prospective student yelled out, "HEY LOOK! IT'S BEACON!"

Diana sprang to her feet and shot off like a rocket to the window, with Naruto and Yang following behind at a more subdued pace.

Beacon was very impressive to Naruto, even after spending a month in this strange world with huge buildings. It was like a cross between a castle and a clock tower.

Out of nowhere, Naruto found himself in a sewer once again. He sighed, "What do you want, ya damn fox?"

Two deep red eyes stared back at him from beyond the bars to the cage.

" **We have a problem, Kit,"** said the centuries old fox. **"Remember my joke about you not being human? Well, this world seems to agree with me. If you haven't noticed, you're starting to develop more foxlike traits."**

Naruto's eyes shot open, "WHAT?! What do you mean? Like fox ears?" Naruto was sure that if he could, the fox would have shrugged.

" **No. Not yet, at least. No telling about later. For now, feel your whiskers. They're much thicker, like when you use my chakra. Also, you seem to be developing night vision. No idea where that came from."**

Naruto felt his cheeks, and, sure enough, his whiskers felt much more pronounced. He turned back to the fox, asking, "When did my whiskers change? And why are you so talkative all of a sudden?

" **Kit, your whiskers changed before you got on the airship. And, if you must know, I'm talking to you because there is literally nothing else to do. Look around. Do you see any other way for me to amuse myself?"**

"Fair enough, I guess," Naruto pulled himself out of his mind, to see Yang staring at him. "What?"

"What's fair enough?" she asked.

Naruto's eyes widened, as he tried to ask, "Did I say that out loud?" Instead, however, he stumbled over his words to the point of the sentence being unrecognizable. Yang let out a small laugh and turned back to look at Beacon.

* * *

As impressive as it was from a distance, Naruto felt that Beacon looked best from the landing docks where the airship parked. He stood still, marveling at the sight, before Yang pushed him from behind, telling him to get a move on.

The two blonds walked towards the school, following and getting swept along by the crowd. The instructions were to go to the auditorium, so that they could receive a greeting and further instructions.

Once they were all packed into the auditorium, they were met with the sight of a blond woman, probably in her 40s, walking out onto the stage.

"When your name is called, please proceed to the testing area. Until then, you are to wait in here. Are there any questions?" She ignored the hands that shot up. "Good. Now, will the first three proceed to the testing area?"

"Arc, Jaune." A blond haired boy stood up and walked out of the auditorium.

"Belladonna, Blake." A black haired girl with a bow on her head followed Jaune Arc.

"Drevos, Lily," A blond girl followed the other two.

And so, for the next several hours, the large crowd of people slowly whittled down until it was just three people left. Naruto and Yang sat alone in the auditorium with an orange haired girl, who seemed to be shaking on the spot.

"Uzumaki, Naruto," Naruto stood up, winked at Yang, and started to leave.

"Valkyrie, Nora," The orange haired girl was gone in a flash, whizzing past Naruto.

"And finally, Xiao Long, Yang," Yang got up and followed Naruto.

When he got to the testing area, which was just one of the arenas around the school, he was greeted with a small whiteboard.

' _You are required to defeat the opponent provided for you in under 3 minutes,'_ he read. Seemed easy enough.

Reminding himself to only demonstrate his speed, and to hold off on all jutsu, he entered the room, only to see some kind of giant statue stood still in the middle of the room. He looked around, wondering where his opponent was, when the statue started moving. And picking up its giant sword.

"What. The. Hell." Naruto deadpanned.

His opponent, which Naruto nicknamed the Giant Armor, on account of its appearance, advanced towards him, hefting its sword above its head. At the moment just before the sword hit him, Naruto disappeared, moving behind the robot.

"You're kind of slow. Huh." He didn't realize that it was a machine. He assumed there was someone actually inside the suit of armor. "Oh well."

He pulled out two kunai, and proceeded to strike at every single limb at speeds far too quick for the robot to track. It tried to analyze a pattern, but Naruto was attacking at random, one moment cutting its right shoulder, the next stabbing its right heel.

With the small kunai he was using, it took Naruto almost the full three minutes to defeat the robot. It collapsed to the ground, and a horn of some kind blared, followed by a "Pass," coming from somewhere above him.

When he realized that he had just gotten into Beacon, he let out a cheer of delight, falling back to catch his breath. He had been going at near his top speed for three minutes straight, so it was to be expected. He sprang back up, and walked out, back to the airship.

Along the way, he met Yang. Before he could ask, she gave him a big smile and a thumbs up. He smiled back, glad he would at least be going to Beacon with one person he knew.

By now, the sun was starting to set. They were meant to go back to the airship so they could go home and pack to come back to Beacon two days later. Naruto, however, had nothing to pack. He was amazed, though.

His haori was still in perfect condition, even after that test.

* * *

At Yang's request, against his better judgement, Naruto was spending his next two days at her house. She had looked at him with pity after he explained he didn't actually live anywhere, and invited him until Beacon started.

That was how Naruto found himself on an airship for the third time that day, this time headed for an island just off the coast. She said the island was called Patch. She also seemed very excited.

"Oh, I can't wait for you to meet my baby sister! She'll be so excited to meet someone who has enough speed to match her!" This time, they were the only ones on the airship, so there was no one to stare at the loud blonde.

"Yes, Yang, I get it. She's fast, like me," the other blond sat back in his seat, having had to put up with her excited mood for hours now. Patch was much further away than he had thought. "So, is your sister this... high-energy?"

"You have nooo idea,"

He sighed, and decided to sleep as much as he could. He felt like he would need all the energy he could muster for Yang's family.

* * *

He cracked his eyes open, and noticed he was moving. His eyes snapped open, and he saw that Yang was carrying him. He rolled out of her arms and dropped to the ground, landing in a crouch.

"Yang, what the hell?" The busty blonde shrugged.

"You said you wanted to sleep. I tried to let you," She said it innocently enough, but she was clearly trying her hardest not to laugh at his reaction.

"Where are we, anyways?" he looked around, but only saw a number of trees. Yang pointed behind him. He turned, seeing a house at the end of the pathway they were on. It appeared to be made mostly of logs.

"Oh. I'm guessing that's your house?" Naruto asked, turning to his friend. She nodded. "Huh. I was expecting something… louder."

"What's that supposed to mean, Whiskers?" She asked with more fake indignation. He gave her a stare that spoke one word: _'Really?'_ She walked past him.

Despite being in sight, the house was actually rather far away. It took a good half hour for the two blonds to reach it.

"I should've brought Bumblebee with me," Yang complained slightly, hunched over with her arms dangling.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her, "Bumblebee?"

"Yeah. It's my motorcycle," She went on to describe it in detail, but Naruto was trying to figure out what a motorcycle was.

When they arrived, Naruto, who had been walking slightly behind Yang, found himself suddenly pinned to the ground by another blonde.

' _Aaaaand the weirdness begins. Wonderful,'_ the blond Jinchūriki.

"Who are you and what are you doing with my daughter?!" yelled the man. Naruto turned his face to the side to avoid being showered with saliva.

"Dad, relax. He's a friend. I invited him here because he's homeless. He's going to Beacon with me," explained the man's daughter. In a flash, the man was off of Naruto and praising Yang for her generosity and success for getting into Beacon. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. His name's Naruto, by the way."

Naruto stood up slowly, like he was being cautious. He kept his eye on the blond man the entire time, just in case. Yang had told him that her family was weird, and he was sure her parents would probably be very proud to know she was very honest.

At any rate, though he wasn't tired, the sky was lit up only by stars. As he looked up at them, he realized that they were completely different than his home, confirming, once more, he wasn't on the same planet, if not the same universe.

He barely had time to dodge out of the way of a speeding black-and-red bullet as it flew into the older blond's arms. They both fell to the ground due to the bullet's- revealed to be a small girl- velocity.

"DAD! I stopped a robbery, and then this woman showed up, and she attacked me, and then another woman showed up, and she beat the first woman, and then I got taken to a police station, and then Professor Ozpin showed up, and then he said-" she paused to breathe. "I CAN GO TO BEACON THIS YEAR!"

Naruto could only stare with eyes that would put dinner plates to shame as this strange 5 foot tall girl spoke. With how fast she moved a moment ago, she was either drinking far too much coffee, or she was Yang's sister. Or both.

Obviously used to things like this, their father hugged the girl, congratulating her profusely. Then, much like the rest of her family, the small girl moved very quickly to having her weapon, a giant red scythe, point right at Naruto's neck.

All the while, Naruto was still trying to catch up to what was going on.

" **Uh… Kit? Why is it empty in here?"**

Naruto shook his head, and noticed the girl, who looked very angry, pointing a large gardening tool at him.

"WHO ARE YOU?" She screamed. Naruto was starting to think it was both.

* * *

"Ohhh," The girl, Ruby Rose, who for some reason unknown to Naruto didn't share a last name with her father and sister. "So you're broke without a house. That makes more sense."

The four of them sat at and around the table in the kitchen inside the house. Naruto had the strange, small, silver-eyed girl to his right, with Taiyang leaning against the counter and Yang sat at his feet, back to the cabinets.

"Yeah," Naruto said. "But also, I've got nothing to do for the next two days. I don't own anything except these clothes and my kunai."

Ruby's head perked up, "Kunai? Aren't those the little dagger things?"

Naruto was surprised that she knew what they were, "Yeah, but how did you know that? I would think they would be too simple for this-" he caught himself about to slip up. "Area."

Ruby shook her head vigorously, "Nope. In fact, in one of my favorite weapon shops, they've got this whole section with basic weapons like kunai, shuriken, knives, swords, tantos, daggers-"

Naruto turned and raised an eyebrow at Yang, silently asking her if Ruby was always like this.

"And darts," Ruby finished. "Hey, Naruto? Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure, Ruby. What is it?"

"Are you a Faunus?" she blurted out. Taiyang smacked his face, not in a disapproving way, but an amused one.

"Uh- yeah," answered the blond ninja, remembering what the Kyūbi told him.

"Can- can I pet your whiskers?" Asked the small girl sheepishly. Naruto was a little surprised by the question. "Sorry, never mind. Dumb question." She looked away, blushing slightly.

"I mean, I guess, if you want to," He didn't want to upset her by denying her. She was like a little kid in a toy store, always jumping from thing to thing.

She bounced in her seat, clearly happy about him letting her pet his cheek.

As she ran her hand down the whiskers, Naruto let out a small purr, not dissimilar to a cat. His hands shot to his mouth, but it was too late. Everyone in the room was already laughing their asses off. Yang was holding onto the cabinet's handle so that she wouldn't fall over. Ruby was not so lucky. She was on the floor, holding her sides. Even Taiyang let out a hearty chuckle.

Naruto heard the from door open, and in an instant felt a gust of wind as Ruby bolted to whomever it was. He heard Ruby's yelling from the other room.

"UNCLE QROW! I GOT INVITED TO BEACON!" A rather tall man walked through the door, sideways for some reason. When he got all the way through the door, it was revealed that Ruby was hanging off of his right arm.

He spoke with a somewhat deep and scruffy voice, "Good job, Kiddo." Despite his outward attitude, Naruto could tell that he was very proud of his niece. Then the man, Qrow, Ruby called him, turned and saw Naruto staring at him. Qrow raised an eyebrow at him.

"Never seen a fox Faunus before," he remarked. "Didn't think whiskers were a Faunus trait."

Naruto felt eyes on the back of his head, and turned to see Yang gaping at him.

"You're a Faunus, Whiskers?" She had genuine disbelief in her voice.

Naruto felt a drop of sweat run down the side of his face, "Wait. You mean it wasn't obvious? Also, didn't Ruby _just_ ask that?"

She closed her mouth, and raised her finger in argument, holding it up for a moment before letting it drop, "Fair enough."

Naruto turned back to Qrow, who looked like he was trying to keep from laughing. He looked back at one of the many blonds in the room, Naruto, and asked, "So, kid, what are you doing here?"

Sighing a little, Naruto went over the events of that day- by now, yesterday- once again. As he did, Ruby got up off the floor, where she landed when Qrow lowered his arm. Once he was done, she spoke up, "I like your cloak, Naruto, but I feel like it would look good with a hood."

He looked down at himself, and remembered that his clothes hadn't been washed in over a month. He had only just taken a shower earlier that day on the airship to Beacon. No doubt his clothes smelled worse than Baa-chan's office whenever she started drinking.

"Well, first, Ruby, it's a haori. They don't have hoods. And second, can I get these washed anywhere here? Like I said, I don't' have anything else, and I've been wearing them for over a month now."

Taiyang directed him to the 'laundry room', as he called it, and showed him the settings before handing him a spare set of clothes from the older blond's own closet. So, until his clothes came out of the strange machine, he would end up looking like a smaller version of Taiyang.

He walked back into the kitchen, where he found Qrow laughing.

"Like a cat? Oh speak of the devil!" He said upon seeing Naruto. "Hm. You look just like Tai used to when we went to Beacon."

"You two are Huntsmen?" Naruto didn't really have trouble believing that, but it was still a small shock to know he was in the presence of this world's equivalent of a soldier.

"Not just any Huntsmen, either. Damned good ones," Qrow bragged slightly. Naruto didn't know how he didn't smell it before, but he could tell Qrow had been drinking. The whiskey on the table helped with his deduction.

"How good?" Naruto asked the drunk. Qrow smirked a little.

"You wanna spar and find out?"

Naruto stepped back, surprised by the challenge, before accepting, "Anytime, old man."

Taiyang smacked his forehead again, this time laughing as he did. This Faunus fit right in with his friends and family.

Naruto and Qrow, both serious about the challenge, went outside, to the spacious yard. Taiyang followed swiftly, so he could keep Naruto from getting too injured. He hadn't actually realized the kid was dumb enough to fight Qrow.

"You ready to lose, kid?" Qrow cracked at the boy.

"Are you?" Naruto retorted. Qrow grinned. He liked this kid.

"Tai, you referee. Keep me from killin' the kid," Qrow called to his friend.

"Alright. GO!" Taiyang yelled.

"BEAT HIS BUTT, UNCLE QROW!" Ruby cheered.

Naruto and Qrow both stood still for a moment, before charging forward at one another at nearly identical speeds. _'He's fast'_ thought the blond. The black haired Huntsmen was having a similar thought, but with a little praise. Naruto saw Qrow reach to his side, and instinctively ducked. He was glad he did, since a giant sword swung over him. He could tell Qrow wasn't messing around. A strike like that would have killed him.

Naruto made a jab a Qrow's midsection, only to have to use his sword has a springboard when Qrow swung it back around. When he put his hand on the sword to bounce off, however, it slipped a little, just enough to get Naruto to lose his balance. _'Clumsy,'_ he thought to himself. He corrected his error by straightening out in midair, and jumping back when he hit the ground, out of the sword's reach. He moved in again to land a hit, but Qrow bent backwards when Naruto tried to hit his neck.

From his bent-back position, Qrow moved onto his hands and set himself upright by jumping off of them with a vertical slash. Naruto dodged to the side, avoiding the blade entirely. When he did, he slipped in some mud and fell over. Before he could recover, he found Qrow's blade pointed at his neck.

"I win, kid," Qrow offered him a hand, and helped him up. "Not bad thought; about what I'd expect from someone who can get into Beacon. Just letting you know though, next time I'm going to fight seriously."

Naruto grinned. _'So will I,'_ he thought to himself. That being said, he didn't think he could do much more other than throw around some fancy jutsu. Even then, he would only be able to use two different techniques, since he wasn't allowed, for good reason, to use his strongest jutsu, and he had never mastered Sage Mode in his own world, let alone this strange one.

"Oi! Watch the cocky looks, kid," Qrow said to him. Naruto realized he had a smirk on his face. But why not mess around a little?

"Nah," Naruto was disappointed with Qrow's reaction. He just shrugged and walked back inside. Naruto followed suit, only to find Ruby praising Qrow.

"That was great, Uncle Qrow! Especially the part where you swung your sword around like-"

"So, Whiskers? Where'd you learn to fight?" Yang asked sliding next to Naruto. "Never seen someone last as many seconds as you did against Uncle Qrow."

"I learned to fight in my own village. They taught a lot of kids how to."

Yang grinned, "You're still not as good at punching things as me."

"I could take you any day of the week, blondie," Naruto could see that they were about to get into a contest of trash talk, and excused himself to check on his clothes.

To his surprise, this machine worked much faster than the rivers back home. His clothes were already out and dry, and it had only been 20 minutes or so. Dressing in just his pants and fishnet undershirt, he went to ask where he was supposed to sleep.

Yang took one look at him, and let out a laugh, "What is _that?_ "

She was pointing at his chest. Naruto looked down, and realized what she was asking about, "It's an undershirt. So?"

"Never mind." Yang said, laughter petering out.

"So, where do I sleep?" he asked. Yang got this strange look on her face, one Naruto couldn't quite decipher.

"You could sleep with me, Whiskers," she said in an equally strange tone.

Ruby was still praising Qrow, but heard Yang, "EWWWW, Yang. Gross, Gross, Gross."

Yang laughed, ruffling Ruby's hair, "Kidding, Rubes. Just a joke. We have a couch, I guess."

"Thanks again, Yang," Naruto wandered off to find this couch, and lay down on it, falling asleep instantly. Not having a good place to sleep for a month will do that to you.

* * *

" _Almighty PUSH!"_

 _The already destroyed streets of the village were torn up in a hailstorm of chakra and rubble. So many people, people who might have been saved, could be heard screaming in pain and fear as they died. The village was reduced to a crater, as the man left._

 _Naruto was left powerless, as his home was destroyed. He couldn't move from the spot he was on, on the wall surrounding the village. He couldn't even make a noise. The man appeared suddenly in front of him, but he still couldn't move._

 _He saw some kind of giant monster with ten tails ravaging the world, before it turned into a tree. An eye appeared on the moon, and everyone stopped fighting, falling into a deep slumber._

* * *

Naruto sat bolt upright, not even fully awake. He woke with a dramatic exhale, realizing it was morning. He rubbed his eyes, and got off the couch he had slept on.

He put his jacket and haori back on, looking around the room he had slept in, not really having done so the previous night. There was one of those television things mounted on the wall. There were some chairs and a table right next to him, but beyond those there wasn't a terrific amount of furniture in the room.

He walked to the kitchen, wondering what time it was. He was greeted by the sight of Yang putting Ruby in a headlock and rubbing her head.

"YANG! STOP!" Ruby managed. Naruto, never having had a family, was lost on what was happening. But, since neither of them seemed to have any malice towards the other, he supposed this was a family thing.

He laughed at the strange goings-on before him, drawing Yang's attention.

"What? You want some, too?"

"You think you can take me?" Naruto challenged.

Yang was quick to retort, "Anytime, Whiskers."

Naruto and Yang were unable to keep straight faces, and started cracking up. Ruby looked back and forth between them, confused. "Huh?" she asked to no one in particular.

* * *

Two days went by very quickly. It helped that the first day was spent just getting back to the house. Before Naruto knew it, he, Yang, and Ruby were all on the airship ferrying them over to Beacon.

While he was at their house, Naruto had learned three things. The first was that Beacon only allowed a number of people to take the entrance exam that was a multiple of four, and that every one of them were passed. The third was that Ruby wanted to take him to a weapon shop, to get him a weapon that wasn't a small throwing weapon.

He tried to decline, but she didn't let up, especially not after she learned that he shared a 'Semblance' with her. So instead, he promised that he would go to Vale with her, to the weapon shop, once they got situated at Beacon. She had let out a cheer of glee.

But now, they were on the way to Beacon. Naruto was stood with Yang and Ruby when, apparently, Yang was simply overcome with joy and crushed Ruby into a bear hug.

"Ooh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!" she didn't realize that said baby sister was having the life pressed out of her.

Ruby was barely able to get out, with the last of her breath, "Please stop."

Naruto laughed. Yang looked at him with narrowed eyes, "What? You think something's funny?"

Naruto could barely stop laughing at the sister's antics long enough to answer, "Yeah: you two."

Before Yang had the chance to respond, they were beset upon by a familiar voice, "MY FRIEND!" Naruto was hugged from behind by someone. Now Yang was laughing. Naruto managed to turn around, only to see a rainbow head of hair. He rolled his eyes.

"Of course it's you. How ya doin'?" he asked Diana. She stepped back with another wide smile on her face.

"I'm doing wonderful! I was so happy to be allowed into Beacon!" Naruto still couldn't get used to her energy. She would put both Lee and Guy to shame, and at the same time.

Ruby, who had never met the rainbow woman, simply stared, trying to ask a question of some kind.

"Who-? What-? When-? Huh?" Naruto couldn't help but laugh. These people were so different to what he was used to. It was as if everyone was like Lee or Guy.

A news broadcast came on nearby, but none of them paid attention.

"Hello new girl! I'm Diana!" The cheerful girl introduced herself to Ruby, who still seemed out of it.

A noise over the PA system caught all of their attentions'. The woman from the entrance test appeared on each window.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon," She chimed.

"Who's that?" asked Yang.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch," she continued.

"Oh."

"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world," she disappeared, leaving a clear view out of the windows.

Ruby ran over to the one closest to them, staring out in amazement, "OH, WOW! Look, you can see Signal from up here! I guess home isn't too far away after all."

Naruto decided to look, "Uh, Ruby? You know that we've had this view the entire time, right?"

She blushed a little, then turned away and said something like, "Meanie…"

They all got a laugh out of it. Then a blond boy, the one from the entrance exam named Jaune ran past, holding his mouth.

Yang raised an eyebrow as he passed, "Well… I guess the view isn't for everyone."

Then Ruby looked down, and saw something on Yang's boot.

* * *

Naruto, after getting off the airship, wandered off a bit, figuring that Ruby and Yang would find their way to the orientation together. He looked around the campus, marveling still at the size of it. The area devoted to Beacon Academy was easily as large as the entirety of Konoha.

Getting an idea, he sat down and started to meditate. As he hoped, he could feel that the natural energy here was the same as he had felt in the forest outside of the city, not the strange perversion of natural energy he had felt on top of the skyscraper. He decided to just sit and keep meditating, reminding himself of home, of all the times he had had in Konoha. He smiled without realizing it. Before he knew it, a voice rang out nearby.

"Naruto? What are you doing?" He sighed, and opened his eyes to see Ruby walking with that guy, Jaune.

"I was just sitting here," he was a little upset he was brought out of his memories. Ruby just shrugged, and asked Jaune if he knew where they were supposed to be going. He didn't.

* * *

The auditorium seemed to get larger every time that Naruto went to it. Even though he knew that the same amount of people were in it, except for Ruby, it seemed like it was so much less crowded. He stood by the door, deciding he would probably want to be able to pay attention to the orientation, something he for some reason doubted he would be able to do if he stood with Ruby and Yang. Jaune had walked off after Ruby went over to her sister, which left the blond alone.

He was fine with that though, as it meant he could retreat back into his thoughts. That is, until a man with gray hair and Glynda Goodwitch took the stage, instantly silencing the room with their presence.

The gray haired man spoke, "I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

He left, and Glynda stepped up to the microphone, telling them to gather in the ballroom for the night, and that their initiation will begin. To them, it just sounded like yet another test.

As it turned out, the ballroom was very large, as one might expect from a ballroom. Of course, Naruto had never even heard of a ball before. He thought that Glynda was directing them to a room full of round objects. All across the floor, mattresses were spread out.

Naruto, having all the energy he did, decided to sit in a corner for a while, meditating once again. It was so refreshing, feeling the nature energy. It was so easy to fall back into his thoughts, his trip down memory lane. He was getting nostalgic for the academy back home thanks to Beacon.

Eventually, he heard candles be lit on the other side of the column he was sitting against. Cracking his eye open, he also saw Yang coming over to whoever lit the candles, dragging an unwilling Ruby with her.

He tried to go back to his meditation, but he was distracted by the sound of their conversation. He tuned into it once he realized it was pointless.

"Does it have a name?" Ruby was asking.

Naruto heard a silky smooth voice speak from the other side of the column, "Well, i- it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body."

Naruto laughed inwardly, asking his only link to his old life a question mentally, "Hey, Kyūbi. Remind you of anyone?"

" **It just reminds me of the fact that I'll be escaping eventually,"** the ancient Kitsune answered, half-jokingly.

"Oh? You don't sound convinced," Naruto picked up on the joke.

" **Only a little. This world would be boring to destroy. I still need you around to find a way back to that damned ninja village, so I can kill all of them for imprisoning me for almost a century."**

Naruto's face lost all humor. He said, in the most serious voice the fox had ever heard him produce, "You won't lay a FINGER on my friends,"

Naruto couldn't see into the darkness beyond the bars, but the fox held his hands up, **"Calm yourself down, Kit. You're lucky your eyes are closed in the real world. Otherwise, the vixens would have seen your eyes turn red. And, Kit? I wasn't going to actually destroy the village. Just anyone who attacks me."**

Naruto managed to calm himself down, and pulled himself back to the real world in time to see some girl with white hair walk over to a very strange sight. Ruby was holding Yang's leg up in the air, while the blonde tried to free herself.

The white haired girl seemed angry, "What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"

Then she and Yang both looked at each other, and seemed to recognize each other.

"OH NOT YOU AGAIN!" They both yelled in sync.

"Shh! Guys, she's right! People are trying to sleep!" Ruby said in an agitated whisper.

The girl with white hair seemed even angrier, "Oh, now you're on my side!"

"I was always on your side!" Ruby complained indignantly.

Yang decided to chime in, "Yeah, what's your problem with my sister? She's only trying to be nice!"

The angry girl's anger didn't subside in the slightest, "She's a hazard to my health!"

Naruto was starting to not like this girl, courtesy of both the friendship he built up with Ruby and Yang, as well as the fact that she reminded him of Sasuke. Before he could say anything, all the light in the room went out at once, including the candles, signaling they were supposed to go to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, before initiation, the future students were directed towards the same locker room as yesterday, to get their weapons and clothing. Naruto, who still only had the clothes on his back and the weapons in his pouch, didn't have anything to get from his locker but his weapons pouch. Even then, it only had three kunai, four shuriken, and one explosive tag inside. He hadn't expected to need to pack for a long trip when he left for his Sage training, but lo and behold.

He walked over to Ruby and Yang, ignoring the high energy girl from the entrance exam and the guy she was following. The girl was rambling on about not being 'together together', or something like that.

"So, you two ready for today?" he asked the two sisters.

"You bet!" Yang punched one hand with her other.

"Yep," Ruby, for once, was much less enthusiastic than her sister. Naruto frowned.

"What's wrong Ruby?" he asked. Yang seemed to have a similar question.

"Oh, nothing. Just a little nervous about not being on a team with someone I actually know," explained the silver-eyed girl.

"Oh, you'll be fine. I've been put on teams with people I absolutely despised and eventually ended up befriending those people," Naruto assured her. Yang looked confused.

"Wait, Whiskers. I thought you said you were from some village somewhere? What do you mean about being put on teams with people?" She asked.

Naruto answered with a small half-truth, "Oh, you know, just for spars and stuff."

Yang just answered with, "Ohhh. Never mind."

Behind him, Naruto heard the sound of something metal impacting a wall. He turned around to see Jaune stuck to a wall by a spear of some kind. He heard Yang say from behind him that they should head for the cliff side where initiation would be taking place. As they passed Jaune, now on the floor, Ruby helped him up and, for whatever reason, supported him with his arm around her shoulder.

On the cliff side, they were instructed to stand on metal platforms, before the headmaster, Ozpin, Ruby had told him, stepped forward to give a little speech.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest," he said, turning his head as he did to look at each of them.

Professor Goodwitch stepped forward, "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

Naruto heard Ruby to his side, "What? Ohhh..."

Ozpin continued, "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Naruto heard Ruby groan a little.

Ozpin finished, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Naruto could have sworn he heard glass shatter next to him, as Ruby leaned forward, "WHAAAAT!?"

Ozpin looked stoic, took a sip from his coffee, and explained the test to them, "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die," He paused. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Jaune, to Naruto's right, raised his hand, "Yeah, um, sir?

Ozpin ignored him, "Good! Now, take your positions!"

Everyone started making some kind of pose, leaving Naruto a little confused. Then that white haired girl from last night, Weiss, was launched into the woods by her platform.

Naruto let out an "Ohhh," of understanding. Jaune had kept his hand raised.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question. So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?" he asked. Ozpin looked at him.

"No. You will be falling," he said, not really answering Jaune's question. Meanwhile, more people were being launch into the woods.

Jaune asked another question, "Oh, uh, I see... So, like, did you hand out parachutes for us?"

"No," Ozpin said. "You will be using your own landing strategy."

Jaune just asked another question, missing that the platforms were almost to him, "Uh-huh, yeah," He paused for a moment, as Yang and Ruby were sent off, one after the other. Naruto barely had time to hear him start his next sentence. All he heard was: "So what exactly-" before being launched by the platform beneath him.

But this wasn't the first time Naruto had fallen from way up high. He sent chakra into his legs, ensuring they wouldn't break on impact. Then, almost as soon as he did, he hit a tree at full speed, making a sizable dent in it. He looked around for other people still landing, but only saw Yang blazing into the distance and Jaune get saved by the same spear that had stuck him to a wall earlier.

* * *

He jumped down from his tree, landing with a soft noise as he went from the top of the tall tree to the ground. Instantly he was off, covering ground even faster than he had moved through the air. He almost ran into a girl in pink and black as he ran, but stopped just short of her.

He looked up from the ground, studying her as he did. She had black boots on that went about halfway up to her knee, and hot pink jeans on above those. She also wore a hot pink tank top, and over top all of it, she had on a black trench coat that went down to just above her ankles. She had pitch-black hair that went down just past her shoulders. There was a gun of some kind slung over her shoulder. It had a very long barrel and a scope attached to it. It wasn't like any gun he'd seen before.

Their eyes met, and Naruto got a grin on his face, "Hey friend. So, you and me?"

Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed his hand and pulled him along, not even giving an answer. Naruto was a little surprised. All the same, he laughed and started to walk alongside her.

"So, I'm Naruto. What about you?" he asked her. She looked at him with eyes that matched her hair perfectly.

She spoke with a soft voice, one that reminded Naruto of water flowing down a river, but also that was clearly excited, "Melissa."

"So, Melissa, any idea where we're supposed to go?" he asked his now-partner. She pointed in the direction they were headed, away from the cliff they had just come from.

"Professor Ozpin said to head for the northern end of the forest. The cliff is on the south side of the forest," she explained. "Besides, it can't be easy to miss a big ol' temple."

"Fair enough."

They kept walking for a while, before Naruto heard a roar nearby. His hand moved to his weapon pouch, middle and index finger going through the bottoms of two kunai. Melissa gripped the gun, now in her hands.

A black wolf-like creature broke through the bush next to them, and lunged at Naruto. He ducked to the side, and covered his ears after a huge bang rang out next to him, and the wolf fell to the ground, dead.

"What is this thing?" Naruto asked, as the wolf started to dissolve into dust. Melissa looked at him with a brow raised.

"You've never seen a Beowolf before?" she asked incredulously.

"I've never seen a _Grimm_ before, let alone a Beowolf," he responded. She stared at him with disbelief.

"Never? Not once? Where did you live all your life? Inside Vale?" She genuinely looked distressed at his never having seen a Grimm.

"In a village outside the Four Kingdoms," he gave her the same answer he had given Yang.

"Really? And you never saw a single Grimm? Ever?"

"Nope," Naruto wanted to move on.

"Wow. Your village must have had some great defenses, and really good huntsmen guarding it," said his partner.

As they walked, they could hear the sounds of fighting off in the distance, all throughout the woods. However, no more Grimm attacked them for the entire time they walked. Eventually, they came across an old temple with chess pieces situated on pedestals inside of it.

"Looks like we're the first to arrive," announced Melissa.

"How can you tell?" Naruto, being a little clueless, asked. She pointed at the chess pieces.

"See how they're all still here? I think those are the relics we're supposed-"

Naruto was sure she would have finished explaining, had it not been for the arrival of Yang and a black haired girl from the other side of the temple.

The new black haired girl, who he presumed to be Yang's partner, was dressed in black and white, with purple at the end of her leggings. Above those, she had on a black buttoned vest. Underneath that was a white, sleeveless, high necked, crop undershirt, and white form-fitting shorts.

Yang gave Naruto a cheerful wave, while her partner studied Melissa, then Naruto. Naruto waved back to Yang and her partner. Meanwhile, Melissa picked up one of the white bishop pieces behind him.

"Hey, Yang! Who's your partner?" Naruto called out to his friend.

"Her name's Blake!" she called back, much closer.

Once they got to the temple, Blake looked around, and asked, "So I'm guessing we just take one of these-"

For the second time since Naruto and Melissa got to the temple, someone was interrupted by the arrival of someone else. From seemingly nowhere, Naruto got tackled from behind. All three people who were not on the ground reached for their weapons immediately, before Yang realized who it was.

"Hey, Naruto, check out who it is. She just follows you everywhere!"

Naruto groaned a little, knowing exactly who it was. He got her off of him, and turned to see, once again, a rainbow colored girl in front of him.

"FRIEND!" She yelled out. Blake was covering her ears, and Melissa was still laughing from when Diana tackled Naruto.

"Diana, I told you my name was Naruto, right?" Naruto asked, genuinely unsure.

Diana blushed a little, "Oh. I forgot!" It was as though she had as much energy as Naruto did chakra.

Looking around her, Naruto saw a guy wearing a full suit, all of it bright green. The dress shirt underneath was bright purple, and the tie was also green. And on his forehead, there was a red bandanna tied like Naruto's hitai-ate. On his hips were two small knives, which glowed red slightly. He was holding one of the relics.

"Hello!" Naruto called out to him. The other guy nodded in greeting. Diana looked back and forth between the two of them, then cheered out.

"OH, I'M SO HAPPY YOU TWO ARE BECOMING FRIENDS!" Naruto, as he was starting to get used to, just stared at her.

"So, what's your name? I'm Naruto," Naruto said as he saw the other guy coming closer.

"Troy," He had a somewhat deep voice, one that reminded Naruto of Shino's. Naruto waited a moment. And another. But Troy didn't continue.

"Right, well anyways, let's get back to-" It was to be expected, but yet again something interrupted the conversation.

"HEADS UUUUUUP!" Naruto heard a familiar voice. He looked around, and saw Blake pointing upwards. He looked up to see Ruby falling towards them. Then, from the side, Jaune came flying it and collided with her, sending both of them into a tree.

Blake voiced the question they were all thinking, "Did your sister just fall from the sky?"

Yang tried to reply, "I-"

This time, the hyperactive girl, Nora, rode in on the back of an Ursa, which died as soon as it appeared. Her partner clambered over its corpse, asking her to not do that again, ever. But she had sped off, and picked up one of the relics, singing something.

Although, everyone was still trying to focus on one specific thing, so no one really heard it.

Blake asked, once again, a very good question, "Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?"

Yang failed to be able to respond once again, "I-"

Then, once more, from the woods there was a giant scorpion Grimm that emerged, chasing a redheaded girl.

Ruby emerged from the tree she and Jaune were in, looking around and seeing Yang, who had seen her at the same time.

"Ruby!"

"Yang!"

"Nora!" yelled the energetic orange-haired girl, popping up between the sisters.

Blake, at this point, was just stating the obvious, "Did she just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?"

As if she was expecting to be interrupted again, Yang got really angry, and burst into a small pillar of fire, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! CAN EVERYONE JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN?!"

Naruto looked away because of all the heat, covering his face with his hand, palm facing Yang. He looked back to see Ruby and Blake looking up, and Yang breathing heavily.

Ruby tugged on her sister's sleeve, "Umm... Yang?" Yang just sighed and looked down, defeated. Naruto looked up again. Up above, he saw Weiss hanging on a talon the size of her entire body, belonging to a giant bird.

Somehow Naruto heard her as she called down, "How could you leave me?!"

Ruby shouted up at Weiss, also somehow hearing her, "I said jump!"

Blake chimed in, "She's gonna fall."

Ruby waved her off, "She'll be fine."

Ren disagreed, "She's falling."

Then, all of them saw Jaune jump out of his tree and catch Weiss. It looked like he said something to her, before they both looked down and held onto each other as they fell. Jaune landed first, with Weiss landing on his back with a sickening crack. At the same time, the redheaded girl came flying in from the side.

Yang seemed to be feeling sarcastic again, "Great! The Gang's all here! Now we can die together!"

Diana, whom Naruto forgot was there, yelled out again, "NO! WE'RE NOT GONNA DIE!"

Even saying that, she seemed so damn happy. But, as if set off by her, Ruby dashed out in front, turned her massive scythe around, and once again, Naruto covered his ears as a loud bang rang out. He assumed that it was the sound of a gun firing, since a large flash appeared at the end of Ruby's scythe.

She flew forward, propelled by her own speed and her scythe, towards the Deathstalker, which just smacked her aside with its tail and began to chase after the petite girl.

Yang yelled out to her, "RUBY!"

Ruby got up, yelled back that she was fine, shot the Deathstalker once, and started running away. But the odds were against her, and the giant bird that she had ridden in on came back around and shot a huge volley of feathers at her, one of which struck into her cape and pinned her to the ground.

"RUBY, GET OUT OF THERE!" Yang yelled to her sister. She had tried to run to her, but the feathers had impacted all the way to them and kept her from getting closer.

Ruby yelled back, "I'M TRYING!"

The Deathstalker neared Ruby, and raised its stinger up, ready to strike. As it did, Naruto was about to sprint out to help, and he could see Tony ready to go, but before either of them could make a move, they felt wind blow into them as a white blur raced past the both of them.

A wall of ice formed between Ruby and the Deathstalker, starting where Weiss had stabbed her rapier into the ground to save the younger girl.

"You are SO childish," Weiss said to her partner.

"Weiss?" Ruby questioned.

"And dimwitted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit… _difficult_ … but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer," Weiss looked at Ruby, who was in shock that her ice-cold, stuck-up partner had helped her.

* * *

As it turned out, running away from two giant demon animals that could sense negative emotions wasn't easy. The Deathstalker and Nevermore had chased them all the way to a part of the temple that dropped off into a ravine with a single bridge spanning the gap to the other side and a large building.

Yang, Nora, and Diana wanted to fight them head-on, Naruto thought that this group of twelve they had could take them easily using sneaky tactics, and the rest of them felt that it was better to run away, and avoid an unnecessary battle.

But now it was looking like they would have to, as the two Grimm were closing in on them. They spread out, hiding behind different stone pillars. The Nevermore flew over them, landing on the temple over the ravine. Naruto vaguely heard Yang make some snarky comment, before seeing the Deathstalker burst out of the forest.

"Ah, man, run!" Jaune complained. All of them ran out towards the cliff, as the Nevermore rose off of the temple and dove towards them.

Ren called out, "Nora, distract it!"

The hammer-wielder ran out from her cover, transforming said hammer into a grenade launcher and firing off several rounds at the giant bird. The ensuing explosions of electricity caused the Nevermore to fly away briefly. Melissa also fired off several rounds at it while it did, each one hitting its mark, but not doing much damage to it.

But behind her, the Deathstalker was about to impale her when Blake, Ren, Naruto attacked it simultaneously, leaping over and around it as they made small strikes, distracting the scorpion for long enough for Weiss to land next to Nora and Melissa, and pull them both away from the immediate threat.

Pyrrha now helped out the two 'ninja' and the ninja by firing her rifle at the Deathstalker, trying to keep it from attacking them as they retreated. The twelve of them began to run across the bridge, not really noticing the bird fly through and destroy the bridge they were running across, forcing them to pick a side. Naruto, Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha ended up on the side with the Deathstalker, while everyone else managed to get across, except for Melissa, who fell briefly before simply floating back upwards onto the bridge.

' _I should ask about that later,'_ Naruto decided. For now, he needed to focus on the battle at hand.

Across the chasm, there was a loud crash, as Jaune off of the bridge like a catapult, and Nora, Diana, Troy, and Melissa made their way across in various ways, to help against the Deathstalker.

In dramatic fashion, Nora came over the heads of Blake and Ren, slamming her hammer into the Grimm and firing off another round to propel herself backwards off of it, as it swiped at her with its stinger. With the backlash from her own weapon, she slid backwards into Blake, knocking her into the ravine.

Troy, Melissa, and Diana landed next to Naruto, ready to attack the giant scorpion. Contrary to what Naruto had expected, Diana wielded her sword as if it was as light as a kunai.

"Ready to go?" Melissa was stood next to Naruto, strange gun held in front of her. "You take it up close, I'll fight it from back here."

Naruto nodded, and went straight for it. Melissa turned to the other two, "Think you guys can get back across? They might need help."

Diana smiled widely, and jumped right across. Troy was more subdued, but followed his partner. Melissa turned back to the Deathstalker, which admittedly was being handled rather well without her.

Naruto and Ren were riding it, striking at exposed flesh, as Pyrrha threw her shield through the scorpion's tail and cut it off. Naruto and Ren jumped off backwards, followed closely by Pyrrha and Jaune. Melissa looked around, but couldn't see Nora anywhere.

She heard a loud bang from above, and looked up to see Nora flying down towards the Deathstalker. Eyes widening, Melissa quickly leaped off the bridge onto solid ground, running past the Grimm. As she did, Nora's hammer hit it with full force, collapsing the bridge beneath it.

The Deathstalker fell to its doom, and the six of them landed safely, some of them with a fancy pose. They turned to see the Nevermore flying about, seemingly ignoring all the explosions as Yang shot at it multiple times. She leapt up, latching on to its maw, and forcing the beak wide as she fired again and again into its mouth.

Yang yelled out emphatically, "I! Hope! You're! Hung-! ...-gry!" As the Nevermore realized she was there, she looked behind her and jumped back from its mouth onto a ruin, causing the creature to crash into the cliffs.

Despite Yang's attempts, the Nevermore recovered quickly, but, turning around, Yang grins as she saw the other five mounted at various positions. Weiss came flying forwards her as Troy fired off his small pistols at the recovering bird. Yang ran past Weiss as the heiress raised he rapier, jumping up towards the Nevermore and freezing its tail to the temple.

Yang caught Blake's weapon as she threw it to her, tying it around the stone column she had landed on. Ruby flew into the ribbon, drawing it taught as Weiss made a rune of some kind that kept her still. She released the glyph as Ruby fired her weapon, propelling herself forward even faster and further. She hit the bird's neck with the blade of her scythe, trapping it to the cliff side as Weiss made a number of runes trailing all the way up the wall. Ruby ran upwards, dragging the bird by its neck, screaming all the while.

She hit the top and her velocity kept her going, even after her scythe decapitated the Nevermore completely. She landed with her scythe across her shoulders, rose petals fluttering behind her.

Troy leaned over to Diana, "Do you feel like we really didn't need to be here?"

* * *

 **DEAR. CHRIST.**

 **SORRY TO ANY RELIGIOUS FOLK.**

 **First off, the support on this story has been** _ **incredible**_ **. It's doing so much better than my other two stories after just, I want to say, three days.**

 **Thank you all very much. Very much indeed.**

 **Second, I know a large part of this chapter read largely like the anime's first few chapters. I want to explain now: This will not be the case going forward, barring anytime that they meet during a canon scene.**

 **Third, if you couldn't tell, Naruto's team has three OC's on it. I'm planning on fleshing them out over time, making them feel like an actual part of the world they live in.**

 **Until Chapter 3: The Beacon!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Beacon

**You're about to see each of the OC's last names. I'll have pronunciation in parentheses.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 3: The Beacon

Naruto could have sworn there was kind of witchcraft taking place. The auditorium, still holding the same amount of people, seemed more crowded now than ever before. All the new students were gathered around, listening to team assignments.

"Russell Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark," Ozpin was saying, as the student's names and faces appeared on the screen above him. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"

The four students walked of stage, replaced by Naruto, Melissa, Troy, and Diana. Ozpin began once again, "Naruto Uzumaki. Melissa Mikeham (Mike em). Troy Davores (Da vore eh). Diana Grout (Grout). The four of you collected the white bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work as Team MDNT (Midnight. It's a shade of purple), led by… Melissa Mikeham!"

Diana tackled their new leader off the stage, as Naruto and Troy hopped down after them.

Ozpin waited for a moment for the laughter to die down, then continued, as four more students came up onstage, "Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." He paused, as everyone began cheering, and Nora hugged Ren. "Led by… Jaune Arc!"

Jaune was dumbfounded, "Huh? L-Led by?"

Ozpin nodded, "Congratulations, young man."

Everyone was cheering as a grinning Pyrrha gave Jaune a friendly shoulder bump, but, to everyone's amusement, the shoulder bump sent him falling over. As the newly formed Team JNPR cleared the stage, Ozpin started the last team.

"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

Weiss's eyes widened, but this went unnoticed by everyone, as Yang had practically picked her sister up in a hug of pride.

"I'm so proud of you!" she exclaimed.

* * *

The students were led to their dorms where they'd be spending the next four years, and left to unpack. Of course, seeing as it was night, almost everyone went to sleep. Naruto, however, heard as one of his teammates left the room. Obviously, he followed.

He found it to be Melissa, who snuck up onto the roof. She sat down on the edge, looking out towards Vale. He was about to ask her what she was doing when he heard something.

It was… crying?

He sat down next to her, concern written across his face. She didn't react to him sitting down.

"Are you okay, Melissa?" he asked, growing worried for his leader, partner, and most importantly, friend. She nodded. She looked at him, and he saw that she wasn't crying out of sadness.

"I just feel so happy about going to school here, meeting friends, all of it," she explained, wiping away the tears. Naruto put his arm around her and sweeping his right hand in front of them, as if he was gesturing to all of Vale.

"We're gonna be here for years to come, Melissa. You better get used to it," he said, half-jokingly. She laughed. He remembered something from the test earlier. "Oh, yeah. How did you float like that, anyways? Earlier when the bridge collapsed?"

A sort of dark look, like anger, crossed her face, as she answered, "It's… well it's my semblance. I can defy gravity. I can't move faster or anything, I just don't have to fall downwards if I don't want to. It's like I can control my own gravity, and move in any direction. But it's pointless. I can only use it one myself, not on anyone else."

Naruto tightened his grip on her shoulder, "What do you mean 'pointless'? Where I'm from, the ability to fly is so rare that the only people who can have perfect control of… Dust." He knew it was a rather lame way of cheering her up, but he didn't want to tell her how they actually flew. "Besides, my semblance just lets me move fast. Big deal. Ruby's faster, and she's had less practice with her semblance, I've no doubt."

Despite his lackluster attempts, Melissa looked a little happier, but in the way someone does when they're about to make a joke, "So, Ruby's faster than you? And Yang was telling me that you're the fastest person she knows…" The innuendo was lost on Naruto, who waved his hand dismissively and scoffed a little.

"Nah, she knows Ruby's much faster than I am," he said, causing Melissa to laugh a little. He didn't get what was so funny, but she was laughing, so it was ok.

"But still…" she said suddenly. "Truth is, Naruto, I've never actually teamed up with anyone before. Back in combat school, everyone saw me as the useless sniper, always missing. So I never made friends with any of them. They always made fun of me for missing, so I practiced relentlessly with my sniper here." She gestured to the gun laid on the roof behind her. "I kept going until I could hit a tiny Nevermore from over 300 yards away, every time."

She sighed and looked down. She seemed like she was about to continue, but, trying to connect with his new friend, Naruto aimed for some common ground, "Back in my village, when I was a kid, everyone picked on me. Not just the kids, but the adults, huntsmen included. No one ever told me why."

Melissa gasped, looking at him in horror, "Did you ever find out why?"

Naruto continued, "Sort of. I was the only" He breathed in sharply. "Faunus is my village, so I had never heard the term."

Melissa waited, but he didn't continue. He turned and looked at her, "But now I'm here, and I know what I am, so I'm not going to let it bother me anymore."

"What did you think you were, Naruto?" Melissa was worried about her teammate. It seemed like he was really upset by whatever it was.

"That's not important," he said, getting up and walking towards the open door. He continued quietly, "It wasn't true."

He walked back to their room, falling asleep very quickly after the events of the day. By the time Melissa got back, he was already asleep.

* * *

" _This world shall know Pain!"_

" _NARUTOOO!"_

" _KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!"_

" _It isn't working… He isn't coming."_

" _But why? Why did you do this?"_

" _Of course he abandoned us, damned demon."_

" _I'm going to destroy the Hidden Leaf Village."_

* * *

Naruto wished the nightmares would stop. They were barely ever even real memories, just the voices of people he had known. He sat up, rubbing his eyes to clear his vision. He realized that the sun was only just coming up, meaning it had to be only… 7:39, according to the handy clock on the wall.

As he was about to lie down, he was startled by a yell behind him, "YOU'RE AWAKE!"

The voice, which he assumed belonged to Diana, made him jump to point that he fell of his bed.

"Stop! DOING! That!" he complained to his rainbow teammate. Melissa was laughing, and Troy had a slight grin on his face. Diana was obviously just beaming away, oblivious to the fact that she almost gave the blond a heart attack.

"OK!" Naruto just shook his head, laughing, and turned to his other teammates.

"Which one of you put her up to this?"

Still stuck laughing, Melissa raised her hand high above her head. Naruto narrowed his eyes in jest.

"I'll give a three second head start, missy," he joked. She just floated up to the ceiling. "Fair enough."

Troy spoke up, "Shall we unpack now, or after classes?"

His question was answered by Diana dumping out her bag onto the floor.

Naruto looked from the pile of things to Troy, and said sarcastically, "Does that answer your question?"

He nodded. Melissa, while they were unpacking, or in Naruto's case, helping them unpack, asked him why he slept in the clothes he'd worn all day, minus the haori.

"I don't actually own anything else," he explained. No sooner had he then they got a knock on the door. Naruto opened it, but didn't see anyone. He looked down, and saw four uniforms sat in plastic bags outside their door.

He picked them up, and tossed them to his friends. He joked a little, "Never mind. I now own exactly one other set of clothes."

Troy pointed out that they should shower before classes. "Ladies first," he said, gesturing to the bathroom down the hall. Melissa came back a moment later and told them that the bathroom was split in two parts, one for guys and one for girls, as expected from a school.

Half an hour later, and ignoring the sounds of drills from Team RWBY's room, they were all finishing unpacking.

"I like these uniforms!" Diana suddenly said. Troy nodded in agreement, but seeing as how he just casually wore a suit, it was expected. Naruto disagreed.

"It doesn't feel flexible enough," he complained, tugging at the collar. "I feel like I would choke myself in the middle of a fight. How do you fight in these things, Troy?"

Troy stared at him for a moment, before explaining the biggest mystery of all time: How someone fights in a suit, "The fabric it's made from is woven with dust, so it's more durable and flexible."

Naruto had no response other than a simple, "Huh."

Melissa walked up next to Naruto, and put her elbow on his shoulder while leaning on him, "Says the guy who fights in an overcoat."

He stared back at her, "This coming from the girl with the trench coat?"

She put her hand on her chest with faux hurt, "Naruto, how could you?"

She turned to the rest of the team, giving them their schedule of classes for the day, "Well, first up we have Professor Port at nine, so we should probably get there soon, since it's…" she checked the clock and said, "8:45."

They all nodded in agreement, instead of just walking out the door in mutual understanding. After nodding, they walked out of the door, intent on not being late on the first day.

When they were just outside the classroom, they heard loud footsteps barreling down the hallway behind them. Parting to either side of the hallway, Team RWBY and Team JNPR came rushing past them, into the class.

"Seems like they wanted to get to class even more than we did," Naruto joked.

As it turned out, whatever Port's class was supposed to be, it ended up just being several hours of listening to Port brag about the Grimm he had fought. Naruto was fairly certain that the class was called Grimm studies, but he nicknamed it Port's Story Time.

He heard snickering in front of him, and saw Ruby holding up a paper to her team. Professor Port cleared his throat to get their attentions'.

He continued his tale, "In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!"

He bowed, and scattered applause sounded throughout the room. He finished, "The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Almost immediately, Weiss's hand shot up. She called out, "I do, sir!"

Port praised her on her bravery, "Well then, let's find out! Come forward, and face your opponent!"

Naruto could have sworn she had been wearing a school uniform a moment ago, but when she stood on the classroom floor, she was wearing her normal outfit. She held her rapier out in front of herself, ready for combat against her Grimm opponent.

Team RWBY was cheering on their friend, with Yang yelling out, "GOOO WEISS!"

Blake somehow got her hands on a flag with the word RWBY on it, "Fight well!"

Ruby was somewhat more enthusiastic, "YEAH, REPRESENT TEEEEEAM RWBY!"

Weiss glared at her leader, clearly angry, "Ruby! I'm trying to focus!"

Ruby looked down a little, sheepishly, "Oh… Um, sorry."

Weiss turned back to the cage, as Professor Port brought out his ax, "Let the match… BEGIN!" HE smashed the lock to bits with his ax, and a boar-like Grimm burst out. It growled, glancing around just a bit before charging at Weiss, who deflected its blow lightly and rolled to the side. The Grimm stopped and turned once it realized its opponent wasn't in front of it.

"Wasn't expecting that, were you?" Port called out.

Ruby cheered on her partner again, "Hang in there, Weiss!"

The boar and Weiss both charged at each other, with Weiss attempting to skewer it with her rapier. It was deflected by the armor and caught in the boar's tusks. Weiss attempted to dislodge it, only to be flung about by the struggling Grimm.

"Bold, new approach. I like it!" Port enjoyed fighting Grimm far too much.

Ruby offered her support once more, "Come on, Weiss! Show it who's boss!

Weiss glared at her once again. In her moment of distraction, however, the boar ripped her weapon from her hands, sending it across the room.

Port taunted, "Oh-ho! What will you do now without your weapon?"

The boar charged once again, but Weiss rolled out of the way, causing the boar to slam into a desk. She retrieved her rapier, and turned to face the boar. Once again, Ruby offered support.

"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath!"

Weiss snapped at the young girl, "Stop telling me what to do!"

The boar charged again, and Weiss stopped it with one of her runes, before leaping up onto a rune behind her, and springing off of it to stab the underbelly of the boar. It fell dead, and Weiss fell back, exhausted.

Professor Port praised her once again on her victory, "Bravo! Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!" Weiss got up as the bell rang. "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and… stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

Weiss stormed from the classroom. Naruto walked down to Ruby, wondering what had happened, "What was that all about?"

Yang was the one to respond, as Ruby just followed after Weiss, "I don't know, but she seemed a little... _Weiss-y_."

Naruto groaned at her terrible pun, as she looked to Blake and him for laughs, "Eh? EH?"

Melissa came up behind Naruto, "So, we don't have class for the rest of the day. What now?"

Yang brought up sparring for fun, but Naruto wanted to go to Vale, to the weapons shop Ruby had mentioned. But then, he realized he didn't know what it was called or where it was. He decided to go and find her, since it would probably cheer her up anyway. He found her in a doorway, staring out of it at the balcony.

"Hey Ruby." She turned.

"Oh, hey Naruto," she seemed much more happy than in the classroom before.

"So… You mention a weapons shop-" He was cut off by a squeal of delight, as Ruby sped over to give him a tackling hug.

"Are we going now? What kind of weapon do you use? Have you ever been to a weapon store before? Do you want to spar after you get a weapon?" She shot off questions in rapid succession.

"Woah, Woah. Slow down, Ruby. Yes, we can go now, I use kunai and shuriken primarily, not for a while, and possibly," He counted off the questions, checking his fingers to make sure he got them all. The small girl seemed like she was going to pass out from excitement, as Naruto saw her eyes start to glaze over.

"Hey, Ruby, snap out of it!" Too late. She fell backwards, unconscious. He stood up, and Yang came by, attracted by the yelling. She took one look at her sister, glanced at Naruto trying figure out what had happened, and started laughing at the circumstances.

"You know, Naruto, I've only ever seen Ruby pass out from her excitement once before. What did you say to her?" Naruto looked at her, mouth agape, trying to talk.

"Something about weapons," he got out. "The weapons store she wanted to go to."

Yang nodded in understanding, "Yeah, that'll do it."

* * *

Beacon was nice, and the classes and people were interesting. But Naruto found himself becoming nostalgic for his days in the Academy all the time. So to let his memory run wild, he took up meditating over top of the door on the roof, looking out at the Kingdom of Vale, like the first night with Melissa.

It let him stay, undisturbed, for hours on end, just feeling the world around him as he thought back to Konoha. It wasn't always great, of course, since not all of his memories of Konoha were, but he still enjoyed it, quickly incorporating it into his daily schedule. After classes, he would always come up here first.

Only a week or two had passed, in which time he had visited the weapons store, Bangs and Bombs, with Ruby. Other than that, he found that he rather enjoyed the classes offered at Beacon. They were basically the same as back home, but the history was new to Naruto.

Now, however, Naruto found himself and his team eating lunch together. The lunchroom was huge, roughly the size of a small village. Ruby mentioned that she wanted to see how long it would take to get from one end to the other at her highest speed. Naruto was waiting in line for his lunch, not having eaten any ramen for several days.

He got his ramen, and started to look around for his team when he was shoved aside by someone, causing him to spill a large portion of his ramen.

Now, to some, ramen was just a food. But Naruto viewed spilling ramen as blasphemy of the highest degree. He turned, outraged, to the large man who had caused him to spill it.

"OI! YOU!" He yelled at the guy. He turned, revealing, unsurprisingly, that he was Cardin Winchester. He looked around in mock confusion, turning to his friend.

"I could have sworn I heard some kind of animal cry out," he clearly directed it as a taunt towards Naruto, and it sort of worked. Naruto wasn't about to let some wannabe warrior insult him. He'd put up with more than enough back in Konoha; he was done with it.

He put his hand on Cardin's shoulder, forcibly spinning him to face the blond, "You made me spill my ramen, you ass."

Cardin, not being terribly smart, decided to keep making fun of the ninja, "Oh, wow. Look guys, I didn't even know they let such filthy creatures in this building."

Naruto had had enough. He was about ready to send Cardin flying across the cafeteria, suspicious or not, when the boy went limp. The racist fell forward, almost crushing Naruto beneath the weight of both him and his armor, but for the fact that Naruto stepped to the side.

Behind Cardin, a very angry Melissa was holding a bō staff that matched the color of her sniper perfectly, with the black pole capped with pink metal. Cardin's teammate, not as idiotic as his leader, turned and ran in the opposite direction.

Melissa looked at Naruto with sympathy, "Are you ok, Naruto?" He nodded, and as he did, noticed Yang sitting down at her table and deactivating her gauntlets. He felt a rush of affection towards the blonde and his leader, that they would so readily come to his defense.

"I need to get more ramen, though," he said, eyeing the mess on the floor. Halfway through lunch, some of the school nurses came in and hauled Cardin out, saying something about a 'nasty concussion.'

The next several days went by without incident, except for when Ruby tried to cross the cafeteria at 'top speed' and ended up slamming into a wall. She wasn't injured, thankfully, but everyone, including her, got a good laugh out of it.

* * *

In combat class, they had begun to spar daily. One of the first matches had been Jaune, who was rather ineffective in combat, against Cardin, who had a giant mace. The match was terrible to watch, as Jaune wildly attacked time and again, only to be rebuked by Cardin every time.

Cardin kept taunting Jaune throughout the fight, much to the building anger of all of Jaune's friends, Naruto included. Cardin was an ass, no way around it. By the end of the match, the larger boy was about to slam his mace down onto Jaune when Goodwitch stepped in, halting the match.

"Cardin, that's enough!" Relenting, he walked away as she came onto the stage, tapping her tablet. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match." Glynda looked at Jaune disdainfully, criticizing him on the battle, "Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?"

Cardin, not even trying to hide it, scoffed and said, "Speak for yourself."

Professor Goodwitch, ignoring him, turned to the rest of the class, "Remember, everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing. Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale."

She walked off, as Jaune lay on the floor, shamed by his defeat.

* * *

Ever since the incident with Cardin a few weeks back, Team MDNT had spent more and more time with Team RWBY, and now sat with them and Team JNPR while eating in the cafeteria.

Nora was telling some kind of story, while Ren kept correcting the details.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now," he finished. Pyrrha turned to Jaune.

"Are you ok?" she asked her leader. He dismissively answered yes, asking why.

Ruby spoke up, "Well, it's just that you seem a little… not ok."

Jaune tried to lie his way out of the concern, haphazardly, "Guys, I'm fi-"

Naruto cut him off, "Don't you dare say you're perfectly fine, Jaune. It's not exactly a secret what's bothering you."

To prove his point, Naruto gestured towards a nearby table, where once more, apparently not having learned his lesson when Melissa smacked him in the back of the head with a heavy metal pole, Cardin was picking on another Faunus, and with his friends backing him up this time.

"What are you talking about?" Jaune was tried to deflect the accusation, earning even more concern from Pyrrha and Ruby.

Pyrrha spoke up first, "Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school."

Jaune, failing once more, attempted to deny it, "Oh, please, name one time-"

"The books," Naruto answered.

"The shield in the doorframe," Ruby added.

"The rocket locker," Troy finished.

Naruto looked over at Cardin, still bullying Velvet, the rabbit Faunus, and noticed Melissa was holding her staff again. Before he could stop her, she bounded over the table towards him, staff held over her head, ready to be brought down on Cardin's own.

This time, however, Cardin's friend had been keeping an eye on her. One of them thrust at her with his sword, trying to stop her. But, much to everyone's amazement but Naruto's, she went right over the sword, right to Cardin, hitting him hard enough for the resulting crack to resonate across the room. Naruto actually winced; the noise was so loud.

In the blink of an eye, Troy was pulling Melissa off of Cardin. The nurses showed up shortly afterwards, realizing that it was Cardin Winchester once again.

Pyrrha spoke up a few minutes later, "I can't stand people like him."

Blake concurred, "He's not the only one."

Yang, leaning over a little, added her thoughts, "It must be hard to be a Faunus."

Naruto looked up, "Why are you all looking at me?"

* * *

Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck's classes were somewhat polarizing. Either you really enjoyed it, or you'd heard all of it before or found it pointless to begin with. Naruto, not being from this world, found learning the history- a history that went back more than just 80 years- enthralling.

Oobleck was talking about the Faunus Civil Rights Revolution, "This is prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War!" He zoomed right up to the front of the class and the map behind his desk. "Humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie." He pointed at the map of Remnant with his stick, indicating Menagerie, then zoomed off to the side for a sip of his coffee before he reappeared in front of the desk.

"Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!" He zipped from one spot to the next, speaking to the entire class. "Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

Considering for a moment, Naruto raised his hand after seeing others do the same. Oobleck looked on with pity. Maybe. Naruto couldn't really tell, since he had sunglasses on.

"Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!" He took another sip of his coffee. "I mean- I mean- I mean just look at what happened to White Fang! Now, which one of you young scallions can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War? Yes?"

Weiss answered with some kind of pride in her voice, possibly because she knew the answer, "The Battle at Fort Castle."

Oobleck seemed a little impressed, "Precisely! And who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Suddenly Jaune called out, "HEY!"

Oobleck zoomed right over to him immediately, "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"

"Uhhhh... The answer... The advantage... of the Faunus..." He looked past Oobleck's focused face at Pyrrha, who was doing everything she could to give him the answer, "had over that guy's stuff... Uhh... Binoculars!"

He raised his finger triumphantly, as the entire class laughed. Cardin actually pounded on his desk a few times.

Oobleck didn't find it as funny, "Very funny, Mr. Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject?"

Naruto got ready. Cardin, not even sitting up, replied, "Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."

And Naruto held down Melissa so that she wouldn't fly off at him. Thankfully, Pyrrha responded in her place, "You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you Cardin?"

He turned to her, "What? You got a problem?"

She turned forwards, almost with an air of cockiness, like she was ready to piss off Cardin. Naruto sat forward in anticipation. "No," she said. "I have the answer. It's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark.

Naruto heard the fox inside of his head, **"Ohhh. That's where."**

Blake chimed in, "General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." She turned to Cardin, ready to taunt him. "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Cardin stood, fist clenched, when Oobleck intervened, "Mr. Winchester, please take your seat." Jaune laughed a little at his bully's embarrassment, as Doctor Oobleck zoomed up to him, "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings."

* * *

Naruto was sat on the roof again, thinking about the Land of Waves, when he heard the door beneath him open. Looking down, he saw Jaune and Pyrrha involved in some sort on conversation.

Pyrrha was offering help to Jaune, but he declined it, saying that he didn't belong at Beacon.

Pyrrha seemed taken aback, "That's a terrible thing to say! Of course you do!"

Jaune shook his head, and walked to the edge, "NO, I DON'T! I wasn't really accepted into Beacon…" He trailed off. Pyrrha, as seemed to have become the norm, had a look of concern on her face.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any tests. I didn't earn my spot at this Academy! I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied!"

Pyrrha had a look of near-horror on her face, "What? But... why?"

"Cause this is always what I've wanted to be!" He turned away from her. "My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough."

"Then let me help you!" She cried out.

Jaune, suddenly turning to her with anger, yelled, "I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!"

Pyrrha backed away a little, "Jaune, I-"

"I'm tired of being the lovable idiot, stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand? If I can't do this on my own" He paused, taking a deep breath. "Then what good am I?"

Pyrrha tried to reach out to console him, but he leaned away from her.

"Just... leave me alone. Okay?"

Pyrrha began to walk away, "If that's what you think is best."

Once she was gone, Jaune sighed and started pacing a little. Naruto decided, ' _Ya know what? It would probably be best if he_ didn't _know I heard all that,'_ and decided to wait for him to leave.

Both Naruto and Jaune jumped a little upon hearing a familiar laugh. A very unwelcome face, Cardin's, appeared over the ledge as he climbed up.

"Oh, Jaune..." he began.

Jaune panicked a little, "Cardin!"

Cardin began to mock Jaune, "I couldn't help but overhear you two from my dorm room. So, you snuck into Beacon, huh? I gotta say, Jaune, I never expected you to be such a rebel!"

Jaune begged him, "Please, Cardin, please, don't tell anyone!"

"Jaune, come on! I'd never rat on a friend like that!" Cardin said in a tone of fake understanding.

Jaune didn't pick up on it, "A- a friend?"

Cardin laughed a little, "Of course!" He got Jaune in a headlock under his arm. "We're friends now, Jaune-y boy! And the way I see it, as long as you're there for me when I need you, we'll be friends for a long time." He let go of Jaune, who gasped for air on the ground. "That being said, I really don't have time to do those extra readings Dr. Oobleck gave us today. Think you could take care of that for me, buddy?" He leaned over to rub Jaune's hair and got up with a grin. "That's what I thought. Don't worry, Jaune. Your secret's safe with me."

He hung back over the edge, and presumably climbed back into his dorm room, though Naruto couldn't help but hope that he fell off. For now though…

"You ok, Jaune?" Naruto asked his friend. Jaune actually, physically jumped this time. But he saw it was just Naruto, and relaxed immensely.

"No," he said reluctantly. "I hurt Pyrrha's feelings, and then that happening with Cardin… Why did I have to reject her help? It would have been so easy, especially since I obviously need the help…"

Naruto sat against the wall next to him, "You know what you need to do, Jaune? You need to go to Pyrrha, right now, and apologize. Accept her help. If you won't because of whatever stupid idea you've got in your head that you have to get better on your own… then ignore that idea. I would've never gotten to where I am today without my friends.

Jaune smiled weakly at him, and brought up the other issue, "But what about the fake transcripts, and Cardin?"

Naruto stared at him almost incredulously, "Do you really think the school did absolutely no research? They probably know that your transcripts were faked, and let you in because they know how good you _could_ be, not how good you are." He paused, mulling over a joke. "And hey, if it turns out they don't know, I think all of Cardin's brain damage from Melissa will probably make him forget."

As it turned out, the joke was well worth it, as Jaune let out an actual laugh, not like the ones he had faked in the cafeteria.

* * *

For the first time, all four of the members of Team MDNT were spending time together outside of Beacon. They didn't have classes for the next few days, so, as leader, Melissa suggested they spend the time together.

So, for the weekend, they decided to head down to Vale, and just hang around places. Naruto, spotting a building that seemed interesting, turned to his team with a suggestion.

"Well, I've never been bowling before. What about you guys?"

Melissa looked over to the bowling lane and nodded, "Yeah, but it's been a while."

Troy responded with a grunt, indicating he had.

Diana, who for whatever reason was walking around on her hands, sprung onto her feet and shook her head, "Nope!"

Turning back around, Naruto raised his finger dramatically, and cried out, "TO BOWLING!"

Walking in, they could see that the place didn't get a lot of business. There was only one group of people bowling at the moment, and one that was eating. They walked up to the counter, ready to pay for a few games.

The woman at the counter, who appeared to be rather disinterested, looked at each of them. Her eyes fell on Naruto, and she scowled.

"We don't let animals in here," her voice came out raspy and dry. Behind her, as Melissa started to get this look on her face, a door opened, and a man who was presumably her boss came out.

"How many damn times do I have to tell you: Stop insulting the Faunus who want to bowl here!" he yelled at her. He turned to Naruto.

"Sorry about that, lad. Tell ya what: have a free game!" Naruto and his teammates thanked the man, and hurried off to their lane.

As it turned out, years of practice as a ninja made Naruto pretty accurate. He also had more than enough power to send the ball flying into the pins, getting a strike every time he went up. He ended the game, predictably, with a perfect 300. Diana, on the other hand, for some reason intentionally rolled her ball into the gutter each time she went up. As they started to walk out, his stomach growled rather obnoxiously, earning him a look from Melissa.

"Well, they have pizza here," she suggested. "And the manager was nice enough to give us a free game…"

For a place that didn't get much business, they sure had some damn good pizza. In the middle of the meal, Naruto looked up from his slice for a moment, "Does anyone remember what this place is called? I think I'm in love."

Melissa tried to think back to the front of the building, before just looking over Naruto. "Blazing Lanes," she answered, reading it off of the wall. "What a strange name."

"So now what?" Vale had a surprising lack of things to do, beyond bowling then eating surprisingly good pizza. Naruto turned to Melissa.

She thought for a moment, "We could always just go back to Beacon and spar with each other for a while."

For two reasons, Naruto rejected this. The first, and the one he told Melissa, was that they would end up doing that anyways at some point. The second, which he kept to himself, was that he still didn't know how his Aura would be gauged on a scroll.

Diana was the one to offer the next suggestion, "Ooh! We could go find a bakery! They have delicious, enticing, wonderful…" She began to trail off, drooling a little at the thought of whatever baked good she was describing.

Naruto watched her for a bit, wondering how in the hell she had convinced Troy of all people to be her friend. They were just… so different. It made no sense whatsoever. He had heard the old saying 'opposites attract' but this was ridiculous.

Said suit-wearing student spoke up next, "We could always go to the park they have in Vale. It is very nice this time of year."

Melissa seemed to be reminded of something, "Oh! That reminds me, I need to get more Dust."

Troy waved her idea off, "Good luck with that. Torchwick's robberies have Dust prices through the roof right now."

Melissa stared at him, "You _do_ realize one of our friends is the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, right? And has an overabundance of Dust?"

"And you think she'd just hand it out?"

"Well, it's worth a shot."

"Sooo…" Naruto started. "To the park, then?"

* * *

Combat was not one of Naruto's weak points, by any means, but he still tried to get out of sparring as much as possible. Today, however, he was not so lucky.

"Today, our first match will be decided by Miss Rose. Miss Rose, please choose your opponent," Professor Goodwitch asked of the small girl, who seemed startled from being put on the spot.

"Oh- Uh, ok… I pick… Naruto!" she called out, much to the boy's dismay. Ruby had been hounding him for a race for several weeks now, ever since she had found out about his 'Semblance.'

He groaned, and stood to make his way down to the arena floor. Since they were all expected to fight in this class, they all wore their casual clothing, meaning the fight could start right away.

Professor Goodwitch seemed to be having trouble with something, "Mr. Uzumaki, might you be able to explain why your Aura doesn't register with the scanner?"

Naruto shrugged, passing it off, "Maybe it's just faulty."

It didn't really seem to appease the teacher, but she accepted it nonetheless, "Very well. I shall stop the match when I deem one of you can't go on."

Goodwitch looked back and forth between them, with Ruby holding her massive scythe and Naruto holding a tiny knife, and began the fight, "Begin."

Ruby charged him immediately, using her speed to hit him. He wasn't expecting such a reckless first move, and wasn't prepared to dodge the blunt end of her scythe. He slid back several feet from the force of the impact, losing his balance slightly.

Having gotten a good estimate for her speed, Naruto readied himself, and took off, using mostly his fists and feet to strike at Ruby. He sped all around her, getting in several hits, though she was able to block a surprising amount.

Eventually, she took off, using the walls as springboards to bounce back and forth across the room, with Naruto at the center of it all. He started dodging her, not really able to pinpoint her location for long enough to land a blow. He had much more stamina than she did, meaning that after a few minutes, she fell to the ground, exhausted and out of breath. He leaned over her.

"I'm guessing that's all?" He said in jest, just joking around.

She nodded amongst her ragged breath.

Professor Goodwitch stepped forward, "Well, that was an interesting match. Young Miss Rose has demonstrated a wonderful point, however: Conserve your stamina. If you run out too quickly, you will be left as prey for the Grimm. Now, for our next match…"

Naruto carried Ruby up to the seats, setting her down next to Yang, who grinned and thanked him.

* * *

Somehow, Grimm Studies, despite amounting to listening to Port ramble the entire time, had attached to it work that trailed for miles. And so, to finish all of his work, Naruto found himself in the library one day, having not been able to focus in his dorm with Diana going on and on about her sword, Papa Chop.

He sat down at a table, ready to start working, when he noticed a mane of black hair a little ways away.

' _Ah, to hell with it. I work better in a group anyways,'_ Naruto thought to himself.

" **Kit, we both know that's a lie,"** snickered the fox.

' _Shut up, you.'_

"Hey, Blake," said the fox Faunus, sitting down next to the absolutely definitely without-a-doubt human girl.

"Hello, Naruto," She seemed a little awkward when she was around him. It made sense, since they hadn't ever really spoken to each other. "What are you doing here?"

Naruto chuckled a little, remembering what his dorm had been like when he left, "Diana."

Blake nodded in understanding, "Ruby. She keeps talking about that spar you two had today."

"You know, I don't have a hard time believing that," He said, thinking back to the time he had spent at their house. She had rambled then, she'll ramble now. "Are you sure she's-" He stopped, and frowned a little.

Blake watched him with her eyebrow raised. He started sniffing the air lightly, like he was smelling for food.

He eventually explained, kind of, "Do you smell that? It's like there's something here that shouldn't be."

Blake was a little nervous, but answered, "No. Like what?"

He frowned further, and started looking around, "I don't know… It brings up bad memories of a mission I used to have to do a lot."

It was Blake's turn to frown, "Mission? What do you mean? What mission?"

He turned to face her, "In my old home, we would do some 'missions' that basically just meant running errands for people who couldn't or wouldn't do them themselves. The one I'm thinking of…"

He trailed off, leaving Blake wondering which mission. She looked at him expectantly, asking, "What mission?"

He refocused, "What? Oh, right. It was this one that everyone hated, because it just happened so often. This one escape artist cat would run away from her owner, and her owner would pay to bring her back. Tora the Demon Cat, that's what we called her. The amount of times that cat scratched me…" He shuddered. "I actually ended up hating cats for a while because of that thing. Evil little devils."

He looked at Blake, finishing his story, only to find her looking down, like he had offended her somehow. Forgetting completely about the smell from before, he cocked his head a little bit, "Did I say something?"

She stood, and turned around, "No, nothing at all." She walked out of the library, not turning around to look at him.

' _Well, that was strange. Kyūbi, that was strange, right?'_

The centuries old demon fox had to agree, **"Just a little, Kit. Maybe she really likes cats or something, even owns one. That could be where the smell came from."**

' _Huh. Hey, Kyūbi?'_

" **What do you want, Kit?"**

' _Your name isn't Kyūbi, right?'_

" **No, it isn't. But I'm not telling a brat my name."**

' _So, will you tell me?'_

" **Very funny."**

' _I know.'_

* * *

' _He hates cats, huh? Well maybe I hate… whatever he is,'_ Blake wasn't terrifically happy that the only friend of hers who was a Faunus just happened to hate cats. She sighed, _'Of course he does. Why wouldn't he? I guess black cats really are unlucky…'_ She raised her hand to her bow. Another sigh.

"Hey, Blake!" The girl turned to see Yang walking towards her. The blonde frowned a little, then perked up again. "What do you look so down for?" she asked her friend.

"Oh nothing, just walking around to find a place to read," Blake lied.

Yang pointed towards the library, "Why not the book room?"

"Uh, no I- I'd rather not. Maybe somewhere else."

Yang looked at her curiously, "Why not?"

Blake felt herself getting cornered, "Oh- um, no reason, really."

Yang grabbed Blake's hand and practically dragged her back to the library, "Well, then, come on!"

Blake groaned, "Ohhh…"

Naruto looked up, seeing Blake get dragged back into the library by Yang. He stared, not sure what to say when Yang spotted him and came over, Blake in tow. He noticed the scent of cats again.

' _It's got to be Blake. I guess she owns a cat or something, like Kyūbi said,'_ He thought to himself, as the fox grunted in agreement.

"Hey Yang, hey Blake."

"Hell-ooo," Yang replied, as Blake looked around nervously.

Naruto saw her distress, and turned to Yang, "Uh… Yang? I don't think Blake wants to be here. I think I hurt her feelings before when I said I used to not like cats, because of something back home."

A look of surprise flashed across Blake's face. She felt like smacking herself

' _USED to. Good lord, I'm a moron.'_

Blake stopped looking around, and looked to Naruto, "No, it's fine. I misunderstood you earlier."

Naruto smiled at her, "Oh, good. I'm glad. I don't like offending people, especially not my close friends."

Blake smiled back. Yang looked back and forth, "Could someone tell me what just happened?"

After Naruto filled her in, she nodded in understanding, and walked off to do whatever it was she came to the library for. Blake sat down next to Naruto.

"Hey, Blake?" He asked, turning to her from his work. She glanced at him. "Why _do_ you smell like cats? Do you have a pet cat?"

She silently gulped, answering with well-hidden nerves, "Yeah, we have two cats at my house."

Naruto nodded, "Oh, ok. That makes sense."

Blake had never heard of a Faunus with such a strong sense of smell before, one strong enough to smell something like the kind of Faunus someone else was. She asked him about it.

"My sense of smell? As far as I know, I've always had it. Side effect of being part fox, I guess."

" **I am** _ **not**_ **a part of you. Don't you dare say that."**

' _Shut it, Kyūbi.'_

"It's just, I've never heard of a Faunus with such a strong sense of smell before, so-"

Naruto cut her off, apparently deciding something, "Blake, you don't actually own any cats, do you?"

She stopped cold, staring at him like he just killed someone, trying to deflect the question, "Uh- Um… I- You…" She turned away. "I don't know what you're talking about, Naruto."

"Blake," She heard behind her. "Did you really think I would judge you for it? Me, of all people?"

Her shoulder slumped. He had a point. If anyone wouldn't think less of her for it…

"Alright, Naruto, I'll tell you. But you need to promise not to say anything about it to _anyone_ , not even your closest friend." She answered, turning back to meet his cerulean gaze. "And also, I'd like to not do it here, if that's ok."

He nodded, and stood, indicating to follow him.

* * *

He led her to the roof, with a wonderful view of Vale.

"So, it all-" she was cut off by Naruto raising his hand.

"One second, Blake." For some reason, he leaned over the edge, looking down. He turned back to her. "Go on."

"Ok… It all started a few years ago, when the leader of the White Fang stepped down, and-" she was cut off again by Naruto.

"Woah, Woah, Woah. I feel like you're starting in the middle of the story. First off, why?"

"That's what I'm explaining, Naruto." She reached up, and started to undo her bow. "When the new leader took his place, the ideals were changed as well. Before long, the White Fang became the terrorist organization you would find today."

"I've met a few of them," Naruto said, looking off. "They seemed alright."

Blake nodded, "Well, maybe to you. But you're a Faunus, so of course they would've been nice. To humans, we were and are viewed as filthy animals, and so that's what we played the part of. The White Fang started attacking businesses that wouldn't serve us, businesses that used Faunus labor loopholes, even some people who hadn't done anything wrong, just to send a message: We won't take it." She sighed deeply.

"And unfortunately, it worked. People started to respect the Faunus, but not out of kindness. It was fear. Fear that they might be next, fear that one of their family members could be next, even."

Naruto cut in, "I still don't get it. How does this relate to you hiding who you are?"

She pulled off her bow, revealing to black cat ears on top of her head, "I was a part of the White Fang until just before Beacon started this year. I hide who I am, because who I am is an ex-terrorist."

She sat against a wall, holding her hands to her face. Making her jump, Naruto sat right next to her and pulled her into a warm hug, one that was meant to comfort her.

"No, Blake," She looked up at him, actual tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "That's not who you are. That's who you _were_. And you changed who you were, because you knew it was wrong. Who you are is Blake Belladonna, member of Team RWBY and an overall great person. Not some terrorist hurting her people's good name."

He had such a way with words that Blake began to change, after just a few minutes' worth of conversation, what she had been stewing over for months, if not years. She leaned into the hug he was still giving her.

He began a tale of his own, "In my home… I was the only Faunus. And the village I lived in had suffered horribly at the hands of wild animals. So for all of my childhood, almost everyone in the village singled me out as the source of all of their problems. Until I was 6, I was sent to orphanage after orphanage, but they all kept kicking me out. When I was five, I spent almost four months living on the streets, scrounging up barely enough food to keep me _alive_ , let alone healthy."

Blake's mouth fell open, concern washing over her for her newfound friend. He wasn't done, however, "All through my life, I had never even seen another Faunus, let alone heard the term. So I had no idea what I was. I assumed, for a long time, even after I had heard of what a Faunus was, that I was what they called me."

His voice broke, and Blake could feel him tense up, as she looked up at his face. It was getting dark, and she couldn't make out all the details, but she could see a little light reflecting off of his cheeks, in lines running downwards.

"Naruto… What did they call you? Animal?"

He shook his head, "No. They weren't as nice as that. I lived my entire childhood thinking that I was a demon, Blake."

Blake felt a small tear fall from the corner of her eye. To think that he had gone through all of that… but still…

"What about your parents? Didn't they help you through it?"

He turned away, not wanting her to see his face, "They died only an hour after I was born. I don't remember them at all."

Another tear. Hearing his story… It was unlike anything Blake had heard before. Faunus tended to stick together, to support each other. To live alone through all of that, and as a child, no less…

"It wasn't all bad, though," he continued, a small smile forming on his face. "The leader of our village did everything he could to lighten the burden on me, even going so far as to outlaw talk of demon foxes, and setting the best huntsmen in our village to protect me. There were two people, a man and his daughter, who would get me free ramen from their stand whenever I was starving."

Blake smiled a little as well, "And that's why you like ramen so much?"

He nodded, "Yeah. That, and it's the best damn food in the world."

She laughed a little at his tone. He spoke of ramen with such praise. Then, she felt a hand behind her cat ears. Naruto stroked her ears lightly. Without realizing it, Blake started to purr. She pulled away when she realized it, eyes wide as saucers.

Naruto was laughing, "So that IS a Faunus thing."

Blake covered her ears with her hands, face painted red, sputtering out some kind of anger, "Why you- the nerve- I can't believe you! Wait, what do you mean a 'Faunus thing'?

Naruto told her the story of Ruby petting his whiskers. Blake laughed at it, never having known a fox could purr.

"Yeah, well. She's a little awkward. I'm sure you would know better than me, right?" Naruto finished. Blake nodded in well-deserved agreement. She and Naruto stayed up there for a while longer, just talking and joking around.

* * *

The next morning, Naruto was rubbing his temples while his team was getting ready.

"Ohhh… I need more sleep…" He complained. Melissa glared at him.

"Well, then, maybe you should have come back to the dorm sooner and slept."

"Hey, I was hanging out with Blake!" he complained further. Melissa raised her eyebrow.

"Oooh, Naruto, do tell." He cocked his head.

"What? What do you mean?" he asked.

Troy, ever the logical one, answered for her, "She's assuming you two are getting involved romantically."

Naruto looked back to a giggling Melissa, eyes widening, face going red. Out of nowhere, Diana came up behind him, jumping forward and swinging her feet up a little, arm around his shoulder.

"Tell us about it, Naruto! What's she like?"

"No, Diana, it's not like that at all. We were spending time together as friends, doing work together," he lied. They were just spending time as friends, but they weren't doing work, by any means.

Melissa got herself to stop laughing, "Oh, whatever. Let's just get to class already. Port's gonna make us listen to his story twice if we're late."

They all shuddered at the thought. It was as is the portly teacher knew his stories made the students suffer. When someone missed part of his story, he would make them stay after to hear the entire thing again. He was a truly sadistic man.

Luckily, and conveniently, for Team MDNT, they weren't late to the man's class. Ruby glared a little at Naruto when he walked in, and he raised his hands in question. She must have been a little upset about losing yesterday, but she was the one who decided to be a pinball. He winked at Blake, who blushed a deep red. He didn't get why.

When the lesson finally ended- which always seemed to take longer than every other class- Team MDNT all left the class together, laughing at the joke Naruto had heard in his travels with Jiraiya. Now, for various reasons, Naruto had had to mutter the joke to them under his breath, ensuring that no one else would hear it.

Melissa pulled herself out of her laughter for a minute, catching her breath, "And- wait, you learned… that where?

With a grin on his face, Naruto answered, "When I traveled with my godfather. He was a self-proclaimed 'Super Pervert.' Oh, the times we had. He even taught me a few tricks with my Aura."

Troy raised an eyebrow in interest, "Like what?"

Naruto sort-of answered, "Just a few ways to control it better, nothing special."

Troy didn't look convinced, but let it drop anyways.

"Hey, so, where are we going?" Melissa asked. They stopped. Except Diana, who was so engrossed in laughing still that she walked a good twenty feet before turning around, still laughing. She seemed easily amused.

"That, my dear leader," Naruto said. "Is a very good question."

"Let's go fight!" Diana passionately called out. Naruto vigorously shook his head. As it turned out, Diana was actually scarily good with her sword. Even without that little detail, there was the issue of getting his chakra to register as Aura.

Apparently, Aura was the physical representation of one's soul. If so, it sounded like a watered-down version of chakra. The Kyūbi was lost as to how to get chakra to appear as Aura, and the fox was much, much older and wiser than Naruto, so if he couldn't get it, the Naruto had no chance.

" **Kit! I have an idea. This world seems to correct things it views as 'wrong,' like when it aligned you further to a Faunus then you already were. So-"**

For the first time he could remember, Naruto cut the fox off, "It would have already changed it. I don't think it can or will."

" **Hmph."**

That was roughly the way the conversation had gone. Since then, the fox had refused to speak to Naruto.

Seeing someone he wanted to talk to, Naruto left his team to wonder, and walked over to Ruby.

"Hey, Ruby." She turned towards his voice, still looking hurt.

"I can't believe I lost to you!" She said in a somewhat loud voice. She didn't really seem that upset. "You admit I'm still faster, right?"

Naruto had to agree, "Oh, yeah. I wasn't able to land a single blow with how fast you were moving." That seemed to cheer her up. "You're faster than I could ever hope to be."

She waved him off, "Nah! I saw how quickly you moved. You got me confused for a moment with how fast you went." She got a light in her eyes. "It was so cool how you went from the one side to the other and then back again so quickly! Is that why you use little knives? So that you can fight like that?"

He nodded, "That's how a lot of people back home fought. Even without a speed semblance, in fact. They were just really fast after years of practice."

He sighed, "I miss it. It was such a nice place to live."

She looked at him with wonder, like he had just spoken a different language. Which, now he thought about it, was a distinctive possibility.

"Hey, could I borrow Naruto for a minute, Ruby?" Blake walked up to them. The cheery girl nodded, and Naruto and Blake started walking together.

"Thank you, Naruto, for the help last night. It meant a lot to me that you were willing to see past my past," she said, looking at the floor as they walked.

"Blake, if I judged people on their past actions, I would have been the one to destroy my home," he joked. "So, does that mean you're going to stop hiding it?"

She looked at him, shocked, "NO!" She quieted herself, "You might be willing to understand, but others wouldn't. Maybe the other Faunus would, but most of them would look at me and only see the ex-terrorist that I thought I was."

Naruto nodded solemnly, "Ok. It's your choice, so that's fine. But, Blake? Your team is made of good people. Yang and Ruby wouldn't care, and Weiss… well, I don't actually know about her, but she seems to get along with guys alright, so she can't be that bad."

He turned, and looked directly at her. "Don't hide who you are, Blake," he advised. "Not from your friends."

As he walked away, the fox spoke to him.

" **You know, Kit, you might want to heed your own advice."**

Naruto laughed at the idea. _'Yeah, telling them I come from a different planet and have a giant mass of an energy called chakra in me? What could possibly go wrong?'_

* * *

 **You know, I liked that chapter. It definitely focused on Cardin too much, but then, so did the anime for those few chapters.**

 **So, the OC's kind of took a backseat in this chapter. I actually added in that bowling scene just so they didn't have nothing to do but complain about Port all chapter. I think I'm going to focus more on them next chapter. Funnily enough, I only realized I made basically another Ren-Nora relationship halfway through this chapter.**

 **Also, part of the reason the OC's were so lightly touched upon was my fear of rushing their own backstories. If you haven't noticed from my other stories, I have a tendency to speed through things rather quickly. I've been trying to slow down scenes by having more detail and dialogue, and I think it's working. What do you all think?**

 **On the topic of you all, at the time of my posting this chapter, there are roughly 100 follows and 70 favorites for this story, and 16 reviews as well. This may not seem like a lot to some of you, but for me, this amount of support is incredible, especially considering it's only been up for a measly four days. Really kind of an ego-stroker.**

 **Until Chapter 4: The Discovery!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Discovery

**I have one thing to ask of all of you: sign in to review. I like to respond to them in a PM, and I can't do that if you review as a guest.**

 **Also, people, please, give Naruto some time. He has no reason to be fighting at full power, none at all. If he did (fight at full power), he'd be liable to accidentally kill someone. Ooh… I have an idea.**

 **And someone rightfully pointed out that the Kyūbi is in the same situation as he's been in all of Naruto's life, when he had said that there was nothing to do: trapped inside his gut. I'm fairly certain there was something else I had meant to write down, but… I'ma just say that the Kyūbi was lying to him. There. Reasons.**

 **The suggested pairings were and are:**

 **Naruto x Blake**

 **Naruto x Yang (Kind of)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 4: The Discovery!

Ah, Saturday. The one day that basically every student looked forward to. The day that meant no classes, and usually, no work. For some people, however, it was the day when they caught up on all of their work, because they either didn't do it during the week, or they couldn't.

Now, as should most likely be obvious, Naruto was one of those that didn't do it during the week. And so, for the third week in a row, he found himself seated at a desk in the library, with two essays needing to be completed.

There was an issue though. Naruto had no idea what the essays were meant to be on. He was trying to be productive, really, but everything seemed to be a distraction, culminating in Diana springing up behind him, "HEY!"

He jumped forward over the desk he was sat at, landing facing her, "I. Told. You. To. Stop. That. How do you even sneak up on me like that, anyways? You wear a rainbow, for Kami's sake."

Diana cocked her head to the side, "Who's Kami? Can I meet him?"

Naruto, even though he was still recovering from his near heart attack, grinned at her usual antics, "Well, I hope you don't meet him anytime soon, Diana. He can be a real jerk, always talking about how you're going to hell, and the like."

For whatever reason, this failed to deter Diana, who just leaped over the table to Naruto, and grabbed his shoulders, "Ooh! Can I meet him now? Where does he live? Does he like brownies?"

Naruto, having grown used to rapid-fire questions thanks to a certain silver-eyed girl, counted them off as she spoke, answering each in turn, "Uh… No, a different dimension, and what?"

Out of nowhere, she pulled out a platter stacked high with the chocolaty treats, "Brownies! Troy helped me make them! They're an old family recipe!"

A very dark thought, one of her family members, crossed Naruto's mind, "Wait… you mean there are more people like you? With the rainbows, and everything?"

She shook her head, smiling the entire time she answered, "Nope! They're all dead!"

Naruto waited, but she didn't continue, nor did she stop smiling. "Ok… Could I try a brownie?"

" **Do they have those little chocolate bits in them that melt in high temperatures?"**

' _Why do you care?'_

" **Kit, I can taste everything that you can. After years and years of ramen, those chocolate bits were one of the best things I have ever tasted."**

' _You've been very strange since we came here.'_

" **Hmph."**

Diana smiled wider, picking a brownie up off of the plate and handing it to Naruto, "Here you go!"

And with that, she left, skipping off somehow without spilling a single brownie.

' _How am I friends with these people, again?'_

" **Because they make you look normal."**

' _Hey!'_

" **Heh."**

* * *

"Today, we will begin to use Semblances in every match. The point before now was to ensure you do not depend on your inborn abilities to survive in combat," Goodwitch explained. "Such reliance would lead to failure once you were unable to use it further due to a lack of Aura."

"Today, the match will be decided by Mr. Uzumaki."

Naruto stood, and looked around a bit, "I pick… Pyrrha."

For some reason Naruto didn't understand, most people in the room gasped, including Melissa and Weiss. He raised an eyebrow at each of them in turn.

Glynda had no such reaction, "Very well. Mr. Uzumaki, Ms. Nikos, please make your way down to the arena floor."

Standing across from Pyrrha, Naruto noticed several people were snickering up in the stands, though he didn't get why. He turned back to Pyrrha, looking forward to the match.

"May the best fighter win," he said, with a small grin.

"Indeed," she returned.

The classroom watched in anticipation as this crazy guy not only agreed to fight Pyrrha Nikos, but actively sought out the challenge. One group had been laughing amongst themselves as they placed bets on how fast he would lose.

Luckily, Naruto and the fox had conveniently worked out a way to fool the scanner into thinking his chakra was Aura. It had cost him several scrolls, but the things were dirt-cheap anyways.

"Begin," Professor Goodwitch called out, stepping back for what would no doubt be a long match.

Naruto and Pyrrha regarded each other for a moment, studying each other's movements for several seconds, like two seasoned warriors meeting on the battlefield. Naruto, ever the impatient one, charged off to the left as a fake, using his incredible speed to practically disappear, reappearing above her in an instant.

Somehow, she sensed him, too late to dodge, but not too late to block the brunt of his attack. She grabbed his leg, and tried to slam him into the ground, but once again, he disappeared, using his speed to his advantage.

Since they were using Semblances, Naruto assumed she was also using her Aura. If that was the case, then he could use his kunai without fear of harming her too drastically. Pulling out just one to begin with, he came up behind her, only for her to turn around to face him again.

She grabbed the hand holding the kunai, grazing the metal for a moment. He pulled away again, moving to her left, preparing to strike at her side, when his kunai suddenly seemed to change directions on its own. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto moved above her again, coming down faster than she could possibly have tracked him.

But again, his kunai didn't move the way he had aimed it. He retreated a bit, getting some distance, as Pyrrha pulled out her shield and lance. She smiled innocently enough, but whatever she was doing, he needed to get around it. His kunai had moved away from her, as she also dodged slightly to the side.

His kunai… he looked at it, then chucked it as hard as he could at Pyrrha. Her eyes widened, and although she moved to the side to dodge, it shouldn't have been enough. Keeping his eyes on the thrown kunai, Naruto saw it move just slightly to the left, the opposite direction of Pyrrha.

' _So that's it…'_

" **I'm surprised someone like you could figure it out."**

' _Trying to focus here.'_

" **Why should I care?"**

' _Just a little more speed… but no metal.'_

Naruto took his weapons pouch of his belt, and dropped it to the ground. Since he had taken the kunai from before out of his leg holster, he had no metal on him.

' _Let's see her dodge… THIS!'_

Faster than he had moved since coming to Beacon, Naruto made a dead sprint straight for Pyrrha, who was still dodging his kunai. Before she was finished doing even that, Naruto moved in close, and gave her a solid uppercut, sending her flying several feet through the air.

She landed gracefully, but Naruto could tell she was rattled. She looked behind him, seeing his weapons pouch on the ground.

And then the kunai he had thrown hit the wall, producing a huge cracking sound as it buried itself hilt deep. Pyrrha's eyes widened at the sight. If that had hit her, she would have suffered a terrible injury, even with her Aura shielding her.

"Don't take your eyes off of your opponent, Pyrrha," She gasped, but failed to turn and dodge in time, as she suffered a horrible punch to the gut, knocking all of the wind out of her.

She stumbled backwards, clutching her stomach, wheezing. For a guy who relied a lot on his speed, he packed one hell of a punch.

' _I wonder if that's how Baa-chan does it,'_ Naruto wondered, looking at his hand as the chakra receded. He had put far too much into that last punch. He was worried he might have injured her.

She seemed to be able to sense metal, and even manipulate it if she had touched it. And since Naruto had dropped most of his metal, except what was used in the zippers on his jacket, she didn't seem to be able to sense him. He could only think of one reason why.

' _Since when is magnetism a fair power? … Gaara…'_ He thought, just a little jealous.

While he was lost in thought, Pyrrha recovered enough to where she could stand steadily. The entire room was silent.

And yet, Pyrrha was overjoyed. Here was someone else who was much better than her, even though they were in the same year. It meant that she had something new to aspire for: beating Naruto.

Pyrrha, getting her breath back and ignoring the pain, moved into a battle-ready stance, shield raised and sword held at the ready. It was no use, however, when Naruto started using his normal methods of speeding around his opponent and landing hit after hit at random. He was a whirlwind of punches, creating an actual breeze around her.

Finally, he decided to end it with one more punch. Trying to just _hit_ him, Pyrrha stabbed in a slight panic, at random. Accidentally, she impaled his arm. And yet, even with a spear imbedded in him, Naruto sent her flying into a wall, dropping her Aura down into the red zone, and winning the match.

She looked up to see him pull out the lance with a small wince. His pain tolerance was insanely good. Then she realized he was probably minimizing the pain with his Aura.

Pulling out the lance, Naruto immediately went into his mindscape, since time didn't pass the same in it, and screamed for a good five minutes.

"DEAR KAMI ABOVE, THAT'S FUCKING PAINFUL!"

" **Yes, Kit, I get it. Now, get out of here so I can heal you without others seeing."**

Pulling himself back to the real world, where only a few moments had passed, Naruto excused himself into the locker room to wrap bandages around his arm where Pyrrha had stabbed it. He didn't need them, not since the fox was healing it very quickly, but it was better to avoid the awkward question of why he didn't have any scratches only an hour after he got stabbed to the bone.

' _You know, this is why Aura would probably be useful. I could have stabbed her and it wouldn't have made any mark at all,'_ He waited, but the fox seemed to be focusing on his arm.

Deciding he needed to do something that he hadn't ever done, even with all the help he had gotten, Naruto went back into his mindscape.

"Hey, Kyūbi?"

" **If you want me to heal you, I need to focus, Kit."**

"I just wanted to say… Thanks. For all the help you've given me. I don't know what I'd do without you."

" **Be screaming in pain, rolling around on that arena floor?"**

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Seriously though, Kyūbi, what is your name? It feels wrong to call you Kyūbi like this."

" **Kit, only one man was ever allowed to know my name. I won't soil it by giving it to a brat like you. Don't forget, I only help you so I can eventually break free and ravage the world once again."**

"Even so, you're the only one who's always been there for me," he smiled at his small joke.

" **Hmph. A pity I can't heal your sense of humor."**

"Hey!" Naruto complained. The fox just laughed at him. Naruto smiled again, this time out of hope. "Hey, Kyūbi, do you-"

" **No, I don't. That's not something I would ever lower myself to."**

Naruto turned away defiantly, "I bet you don't even-"

" **I know everything you have ever thought in your entire life. So yes, I know what you were going to ask, and, as I said, I would never lower myself to being friends or comrades with a human."**

Naruto grinned at him, that foxlike grin that spoke of mischief, "Hey, you were the one who said I wasn't human. So what do you say?"

" **No."**

Naruto sighed, "Fine. But I'm not giving up. I will find out your name by the time I die, even if it's the last thing I do. It just feels like I'm insulting you every time I want to talk to you."

" **You speak of my glorious tails when you call me Kyūbi. You call me the strongest Bijuu. It's a compliment to me, Naruto."**

Naruto smiled a little, missing the fox calling him by his name, and pulled himself back to the real world, only to find Pyrrha waving her hand in front of his face, "Naruto?"

He blinked, and turned to look at her, "What?"

She looked down sheepishly, "Well, I… I wanted to make sure you were ok after that… Sorry."

He waved her off, "Pssh. This is nothing. I had a friend at one point that stabbed me through the chest, with his hand coming out the other side. Needless to say, I was in the hospital for a long time after that fight."

She looked to be speechless, but still she got out a question, almost like a reflex, "Why did he stab you?"

"Oh, I was just trying to bring him back home one day and we got into a fight," He wasn't really lying, even if it was only a half-truth.

"Oh, my," Pyrrha didn't seem to have a good way to reply. Instead, the two fighters made their ways back to the seats, as the next two- Yang and Cardin- made their ways down to the floor. When he walked out, everyone stared at Naruto like he was some kind of alien.

He leaned over to Pyrrha, asking her, "Why do they keep doing that?"

"Hm?" She looked over to the people staring at him. "Oh, that. Because of my talent, everyone calls me 'The Invincible Girl.' When you challenged and beat me, it was a shock to them."

"Ohhh… You know, I could see why. It's only because I've been trained to analyze my opponent's abilities all my life that I knew what-"

He was cut off by Yang, "HEY NARUTO! CATCH!"

He turned, and raised his hand to catch his weapons pouch that he had left on the floor, calling back to her, "Thanks, Yang!"

As he turned back to Pyrrha, he noticed Ruby was staring at him, literally shaking in her seat. She seemed like she was about to take off like a rocket.

He turned back to Pyrrha, finishing his thought, "But yeah, it took a little while and a lot of brain power to work out what you were doing. You're good. You'd fit right in in my village."

She smiled at him. He went back to sit with his team, where Melissa congratulated him on his victory, "I knew you were fast, but damn… I couldn't even keep track of you. Ruby kept jumping up, all excited. None of us got why, but she said that she could see you the entire time. She even questioned us when we said that you were moving too fast… wow. That was incredible, Naruto."

Even Troy looked impressed, "I have to agree with her, Naruto. You fight similarly to me, but your fluidity… it was unbelievable. You went so easily from one strike to the next. How did you come up with that style?"

Naruto blushed from all the praise, "Oh, it's nothing I came up with. It's something I saw someone in my home village do, and then I copied it for the entrance exam… nothing special."

Diana, who had been devouring her brownies, looked up from them, "Are you kidding? It's incredible!"

Naruto laughed, "Not the brownies, Diana. I already know how great those are."

"Oh. Ok!" Even having spent his life surrounded by characters like Lee, Guy, and even, to an extent, Kakashi, Naruto was still thrown off by just how much energy Diana always seemed to have. It was like she downed gallons of caffeine every morning. And yet, as far as Naruto knew, she had never even touched any caffeine.

* * *

" _Feel Pain, Contemplate Pain, Accept Pain, and Know Pain. Those who do not know Pain will never understand true peace!"_

" _SHINRA TENSEI!"_

 _The village was ravaged from the center outwards by the god known as Pain, as he released a devastating wave of chakra to crush everything beneath him. In the end, all that was left was a crater filled with dust and rubble._

* * *

They weren't even nightmares from his past, nor were they possible in the slightest… right?

No way could any shinobi be that powerful, as to destroy the entire village with one attack. Naruto had nothing to worry about.

Although, the dream did certainly serve a good purpose. It reminded Naruto that he needed to start practicing his Sage Mode in this world, with its different energy. And without Fukasaku for help, he assumed it would take quite a while.

" **You know, I could just give you my chakra. As my Jinchūriki, you need no power other than mine."**

Naruto scoffed, "Right, and you'll give me your chakra whenever I ask?"

" **I would give you my chakra, Kit, when it's needed for you to survive."**

"Exactly my point."

So instead of reliving his days in Konoha, he spent his time meditating on the roof trying to grasp the natural energy. While he could sense it, it was almost like it rejected him, like how the nature energy back on Mount Myōboku had.

For several weeks, his life became a repeating grind of classes, meditation, and sleeping.

One night, he was on the roof when he heard the door beneath him open. Blake burst out of it, looking panicked. He hopped down behind her, as she looked around.

"Where is he? I know he said he spent time up here…" She turned, nearly fainting from fright when she saw Naruto standing there unexpectedly.

"Are you ok, Blake?" Naruto asked, concern sprinkled into the question.

"Uh… no, not really. I got into an argument with Weiss, and I accidentally let slip that I was a Faunus and a part of the White Fang. I didn't know what to do, so I ran. Please, _please_ , come with me."

Naruto, being the kind of person he was, didn't want his friends to be alone in distress, no matter what.

"Alright. Let's go," he said, nodding. She looked overjoyed at his agreement. She practically dragged him down the stairs and out the front door. As they passed the fountain, Naruto heard some kind of noise. He sniffed the air, getting a faint tinge of… a monkey. Probably a Faunus, all things considered.

"Come out!" He called angrily. A boy with blond hair, more platinum than Naruto's, jumped down from a light post. He held his hands up.

"Alright, alright, no need for hostility," He said very casually. "I was just wondering about your friend with the bow."

Naruto glowered at him. "Alright, sorry," he said, backing away, hands still in the air.

Blake didn't seem upset, just a little surprised at the appearance of the boy. "No, it's fine, Naruto. He can come, too."

Naruto turned to her, "Who is he, anyway?"

She shrugged, "I'm not sure, but when Weiss assumed he was a criminal based on his tail, that's when the argument started."

Naruto looked back suspiciously at the boy, and then, registering what Blake had said, felt a rush of anger towards Weiss. If she felt that way about Faunus, how did she feel about him? He almost wanted to go confront her about it, but for the fact that Blake needed his support.

"Alright, come on," Naruto said, motioning to the boy with his shoulder. The blond started over to them, making little finger guns.

* * *

When Melissa awoke the next morning, the first thing she noticed was that Naruto was missing. The second was that his bed was made, meaning he hadn't slept there the night before. It wasn't an issue, being Saturday, but he hadn't spent a single night _not_ sleeping in it.

So, she asked her teammates if they had seen him, but, to her dismay, they hadn't. The last time they had seen him, he was headed to the roof, to do whatever it was he did up there all the time. Since it was the only lead she had, she decided to go to the roof.

As she passed Team RWBY's room, she noticed the door was open, and voices were wafting out. She heard Ruby's voice first.

"-didn't come back last night. I'm worried, Weiss."

"Well, don't be. She proved she's just a criminal when she ran for it," Melissa heard the heiress say.

Yang's voice was next, "Weiss! Don't say that! She's our friend!"

"Is she?"

"WEISS!"

Melissa walked up to their door, and looked in. Blake wasn't present, and Weiss was crossing her arms, looking away from the two sisters. Melissa walked in, thinking she had figured it out.

"Is Blake missing?" she asked. Weiss sneered.

"Yes, that criminal is gone," she said, anger dripping from her voice.

"Weiss! Stop it!" Yang snapped at her. "We don't know where she is. She let slip she was a Faunus last night, and… ran off."

Melissa nodded in understanding, "She's probably with Naruto, then."

Weiss scoffed, "That makes sense. Criminals always band together."

Everyone else glared at her. She didn't let up, "Don't look at me like that. She admitted she was a criminal herself, and Naruto hasn't said anything about his past. Is it so hard to believe he was in the White Fang?"

Melissa felt an urge to get out her staff. She turned to Yang and Ruby before she could, "We should look for them in Vale. If I know Naruto, he'll go where the ramen is. That boy has an obsession."

Ruby spoke up, "I hope they're ok. Blake seemed scared when she left."

Yang put her arm around Ruby in a sisterly way, "Don't worry, Rubes. That's why she went to find Naruto."

Weiss seemed like she was about to speak again, but before she could Melissa shot her a dark look, and she backed off. Melissa turned back to Ruby and Yang, "Any ideas where Blake might go?"

Ruby shook her head, and Yang thought for a moment before shrugging.

"So then, we should start with wherever ramen is sold," Melissa said. "Anyone know any places?"

"There aren't any places that sell ramen in Vale," Yang said. "So, we're left with no leads whatsoever."

"We could just-"

Melissa growled, "Weiss, if you say a single word about the White Fang, I swear I will rip your arm off."

"I guess our best bet is to walk around Vale, and keep our eyes out," suggested Yang. Ruby and Melissa nodded in agreement, and the four of them left to look for the two Faunus.

* * *

At a café in Vale, Blake was finishing her tale to Sun, a tale Naruto had already heard, "So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am: a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow." To demonstrate her point, she wiggled her ears, causing the bow to move along with them.

Sun nodded lightly. "So… have you told any of your friends this?" He asked, eyeing Naruto.

She half-heartedly shook her head, "Only Naruto, and he sort of dragged it out of me."

Naruto nodded, then perked his head up as he heard a familiar voice in the distance.

* * *

"BLAKE! NARUTO!" Yang called out, for what felt like the hundredth time. Ruby and Melissa were doing the same, while Weiss followed along unhelpfully.

Ruby turned to Weiss, pouting, "Weiss! You're not helping!"

Weiss spoke with sarcasm layering her tone, "Oh, you know who might be able to help? The police!"

Melissa rounded on her almost instantly, "Shut. Up. Naruto isn't a criminal, and if he went along to help Blake, then she can't be either."

Weiss almost laughed, "And you just _know_ he isn't a criminal? And besides, Blake ran as soon as she realized what she said. Why would she unless she had something to hide?"

Melissa heard a new voice behind them, and nearly jumped out of her skin alongside the members of Team RWBY, "Ooh, like a present?"

"GAH! PENNY!" Ruby yelled at the orange-haired girl who had suddenly appeared behind them. "Where did you come from?"

Penny ignored the question, "Hey guys! What are you up to? And who is this?" She was looking at Melissa, who hadn't met her either.

Yang answered, "We're looking for our friends Blake and Naruto. Also, this is Melissa."

Penny seemed to ignore the mention of Naruto and Melissa, "Oh, you mean the Faunus girl?"

They all stared at her, before Ruby asked, "Wait, how did you know that?"

Penny pointed to her head, "Uh… The cat ears?"

Laughing a little, Yang asked her, "What cat ears? She wears a bow…"

She trailed off, as the four of them were practically hit in the face with realization.

As they stood in silence, Penny spoke up, "Who's Naruto?"

The question, giving them something they could focus on, snapped them out of their self-criticism. "He was my teammate," Melissa answered. "And he recently started spending time with Blake, so I'm guessing he could tell her Faunus heritage. He's a Faunus himself, so…"

Penny nodded, "Well, then, let's go find them!"

Melissa stared at her. "That was the idea…" She said. "But we have no idea where to look."

"Well, where would they go?"

Melissa sighed, "We don't know, Penny. That's why we were wandering around, calling their names."

"Yeah. They haven't shown up anywhere," Ruby chimed in. "Right, guys?"

Silence followed. Ruby and Melissa turned to find Yang and Weiss had left them behind.

* * *

Yang groaned. It had been several hours since they had started search, and the sun was starting to set. She and Weiss had been walking from store to store all day, asking if they had seen a girl wearing white and black with a bow and a Faunus with her. To be more accurate, Yang was asking, and Weiss kept making her disapproval known.

They had been friends for several months, and yet Weiss was willing to disregard all of that at the mention that Blake was a Faunus. On top of that, she had assumed Naruto was a criminal just because Blake had gone to him for help when she was scared.

While Yang was asking a baker, Weiss stood off to the side, clucking her tongue. When they walked out, Yang complained about the search, "This is hopeless. You really don't care if we find them, do you?" She added, seeing Weiss's even expression.

"Don't be stupid. Of course I do. I'm just afraid of what Blake will say when we do," Weiss began forwards, calling back to the blonde, "The innocent never run, Yang!"

She kept walking, leaving Yang to stew in her thoughts.

* * *

"So… What are we doing, anyways?" Naruto asked, breaking the long silence.

Blake shook her head, "I still don't believe the White Fang is behind all of these robberies. They've never needed that much Dust before."

"Well, first time for everything," Naruto said.

"You know what?" Sun said. "He's right. What if they did? What if the White Fang needed all the Dust they could get their hands on? So then, to prove they didn't do it, you would have to go to the place where they would go if they _were_ to do it, and not find them there, right?" To emphasize his point, he started making little finger guns again.

"Maybe, but do you have any idea where that would be?" Naruto asked.

"Well, while I was on the ship, I heard some guys talking about offloading a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas."

"Wait, what ship?" Naruto asked, not having heard mention of any ship before.

"Oh, nothing. I came here as a stowaway on a boat," Sun brushed off the question.

"How huge, Sun?" Blake asked.

" _Huge._ "

Naruto waited, but he didn't elaborate.

Blake decided for them, "Alright. Then we'll stake out the shipment."

* * *

"So, Blake was your friend?" Penny asked, despite already having received confirmation earlier that day. She still seemed to ignore the mention of Naruto, as well.

Ruby sighed, "Yes, Penny."

Feeling the need to defend her partner, Melissa spoke up, "Naruto is our friend, too." Ruby nodded.

"But you're mad at them?" The girl asked.

"Yes. Well, I'm not. Weiss is," Ruby answered, looking around the streets.

Penny kept up the questions, "Is _she_ friends with them?"

Ruby shrugged, looking at Melissa for help. Melissa offered it, "Maybe. We're not really sure. I'm just worried about what they're doing."

Penny looked confused, "Why not?"

Ruby looked upset, but answered anyways, "Well, Blake might not be who we thought she was, and Naruto ran off with her."

"Is she a man?!" Penny gasped.

Melissa laughed at the strange girl, as Ruby turned around to face her, "No! No, Penny, She's…" She paused, trying to think. "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."

"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things."

Ruby turned back around, looking down sadly, "Me, too…"

Melissa agreed, "Yeah, especially something as big as this."

* * *

"Did I miss anything?" Sun asked, laying prone next to Blake. She was leaning over the edge slightly, looking out at the docks, while Naruto sat cross-legged nearby, with his hands together in some sort of prayer. He was weird.

"Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there," Blake answered, looking over at him.

"Cool. I stole you some food," said the monkey Faunus, holing out an apple.

Blake glared at him, "Do you always break the law without a second thought?"

Sun tried to be funny, "Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" Blake glared at him more. "Ok, too soon."

The wind started to pick up, and overhead, a Bullhead began flashing its searchlights, trying to find a place to land. It began to descend right into the middle of the collection of crates, extending a ramp on which a figure with a white mask appeared on.

"Oh, no…" Blake let out. It was clear she had hoped for anything else, anything that didn't prove Weiss was right.

"Is that them?" Sun asked. From where they were hiding, they could see the bloody wolf emblem of the White Fang emblazoned on the back of the man's outfit. He motioned to other people inside the Bullhead.

"Alright, grab the tow cables!" They could just make out the man's order from their hiding place.

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun questioned, studying the scene before them.

She answered sadly, "No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right."

From inside the Bullhead, a new voice rang out. It was one that none of them recognized, but appeared to belong to the man strutting down the ramp, holding a cane, "Hey! What's the holdup? We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

Blake narrowed her eyes, seeing Roman Torchwick stood before a group of White Fang members, ordering them around. "This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." She stood up and pulled out her katana before walking off the edge of the roof.

Sun stared at her with alarm, asking, "Hey, what are you doing?" as she dropped of the crate. He turned back to Naruto, who hadn't said a word or even moved the entire time. "We need to help her!" Naruto still didn't move. Sun rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll help her myself," he declared, as he dropped of the roof after Blake.

Blake hit the ground, and began moving stealthily from crate to crate, sneaking up on Torchwick. As she got closer, she could hear him berate and insult one of the White Fang members, "No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!" Blake appeared behind him with her blade at his throat. "What the- Oh, for f-"

Blake cut him off, "NOBODY MOVE!"

Some of the members of the White Fangs aimed their guns at her, while the rest gripped swords, ready to attack the moment an opportunity presented itself.

Roman taunted her, "Woah! Take it easy there, little lady."

The White Fang began encircling Blake, as she reached up and removed her bow with her free hand, revealing her ears.

"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?" she called out, as they lowered their weapons slightly, unsure after seeing her ears. Roman laughed at her.

"Oh, kid, didn't you get the memo?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together!"

Blake held her blade tighter to his throat, "Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation."

Suddenly, the air filled with the sound of turbines, as several other Bullheads appeared, flying over to the docks. Blake looked in horror.

Roman, looking up, took the chance to taunt her further, "I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation..." Seeing her distracted, Roman pointed his cane at the ground beneath their feet, and pulled the trigger.

* * *

Hearing an explosion, Melissa, Ruby, and Penny looked around wildly, seeing a cloud of smoke over by the docks.

Melissa leaned over to Ruby, "You don't think…"

Ruby answered the unfinished question, "Probably."

* * *

Though the explosion had hurt her very little, Blake rolled away from it quickly, dodging more as Torchwick kept up a barrage of attacks. She sprinted behind a container, and Torchwick began sauntering over slowly, taunting her all the while, "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…"

He was hit in the face with a banana peel from above, and he looked up to see a boy with a monkey tail leap down, yelling out, "Leave her alone!" He landed on Roman, then rolled off and sprang up. More White Fang members came out of the new Bullheads, surrounding Sun as Torchwick got to his feet.

As if he couldn't live without insulting his enemies, Torchwick started on Sun, "You're not the brightest banana in the bunch, are you, kid?" The White Fang charged the monkey Faunus, though he managed to dodge their slashes and get some of the soldiers with his fists and kicks until he was forced roll out of the way, pulling out a collapsible red staff as he went. Proving his skill, he went from grunt to grunt, beating each of them in one well-placed blow, before slamming it into the ground and creating a shockwave that took out the last of them

Blake peeked around the corner of the container to watch Sun jump around and beat more White Fang soldiers, causing one to fly over Roman's head. The crime boss growled in annoyance and pointed his cane at Sun, firing a shot that the Faunus defended himself from just as Blake leapt into the fight.

She yelled out, "He's mine!"

Blake moved in close and began to use her semblance to become little more than a blur of afterimages as she attack Torchwick with both blades of her weapon, as he backed away and deflected each would-be blow with his cane. Blake continued to attack the mobster to try and find a weak spot, but her enemy, while barely deflecting the attacks, landed several hits on Blake until one final beating with his cane sent her down.

Just as he dealt with Blake, Sun appeared right behind her and disconnected his staff in two spinning circles of flame-firing shotgun nun-chucks. Sun began a barrage of attacks with each gun at Torchwick, but even with the rapid series of shots and flying bullets, the mobster with no training managed to defend himself against every bullet and hit until a millisecond-long pause allowed Blake to get a slash in and knock him back.

On his back, the mobster spotted a container hanging by a crane right above his opponents, and fired his cane at its supports. Blake leapt behind it, but Sun barely managed to avoid it when he jumped forward, ending up right below the nozzle of Torchwick's cane. Just as he was about to fire, his cane was sent straight into the ground and out of his hands by a new arrival.

Torchwick looked at the boy who had disarmed him, as the boy was still looking down from his drop into the fight. He had on some sort of red cloak with an orange jumpsuit underneath it. The ground beneath him had cracked from the force with which he'd punched Torchwick's cane. The boy looked up, fury in his eyes.

His eyes that were two red slits.

He spoke, but not with the voice that a boy should have. When he spoke, Torchwick didn't so much hear it as he felt it.

 **"You won't lay a hand on my friends!"**

As the sound of the voice went through him, Torchwick realized that all the anger and hatred he felt wasn't his own. It was the _boy's_. Except for his fear. It felt exhilarating. He grinned.

"Finally some fun, not some kiddies playing hero," he taunted. It was a mistake, just like almost killing the monkey boy.

Faster than he could register, he was sent flying into a container behind him, denting it inwards a foot or two. He got up, laughing, as the boy appeared in front of him, poised to send him into the ground. Only in the instant the boy had paused to attack was Torchwick able to move to the side even slightly, avoiding the worst of his attack. As it was, he felt most of the bones in his left arm break, as the boy struck the top of his shoulder.

Several members of the White Fang came up behind the boy, pointing weapons at him. The boy turned just enough to glare at them through the corner of his eye, and began pinballing from one Faunus to the next. In all of the confusion, Torchwick began to move to a Bullhead, grabbing his cane and resisting the urge to scream in pain. Oh, how Neo would have a field day with this one.

He boarded the Bullhead, and all three took off, only for one of them to be stopped by something, and another to be torn apart by a massive laser. He looked down around the docks, and saw a new girl, one with orange hair, had arrived on the scene.

He shook his head, muttering "These kids just keep getting weirder…"

* * *

Blake stared at the carnage before her, as Naruto went from one terrorist to the next, tearing off one of their faces as he attacked wildly and ferociously, like an animal. His eyes had gone red, and changed into vertical slits. She couldn't process what she was seeing. And on top of that, he had done it to protect Sun, a friend who had helped Blake find out all she had learned here tonight.

Eventually, there were no more conscious members of the White Fang left. At some point, Ruby had appeared next to Blake, trying to talk to her, to ask where she had been. Along with her had come that Penny girl and Naruto's partner, Melissa. Penny had taken down two Bullheads, while Melissa had mimicked Blake in watching Naruto.

Naruto calmed himself down, his eyes returning to normal. He looked back to see Melissa and Blake with their mouths open, and Sun staring at him with wide eyes, as he tried to thank him for saving him. He waved off the gratitude. What were friends for, after all?

Thinking on his feet, Naruto came up with a good lie for what had happened. He walked over to Blake, kneeling down and putting his hand on her shoulder, shaking her back into focus. They went over to where everyone else was sat.

"Naruto… What-" She tried to ask.

"It's something that happens when I… embrace my fox side, for lack of a better term, or when I get angry enough to react on instinct. I fight a bit feral-y, I know. I don't like to do it because it could cause me to accidentally attack a friend. Still just me, though. Don't worry."

"But your eyes…"

"That's what they would normally look like, if I were a fox," he explained. She nodded in understanding. She seemed to believe him. He was lucky he hadn't leaked any red chakra. _That_ would've been hard to explain. He had been trying to get into Sage Mode, but he had noticed that his friends were in danger.

He explained to Melissa in the same way, and she nodded in understanding. Ruby just looked at with admiration for how fast he had moved, with such control.

" **Kit, why did you use my chakra for the monkey?"**

' _Hey! Don't call him a monkey! He's a Faunus, too.'_

" **Why did you use my chakra to help him?"**

' _Because he's a friend, and I always try to help my friends however I can.'_

" **But, why not use your own chakra or that 'Sage Mode' you love so much?"**

' _I can't get into Sage Mode here, and besides, you're stronger, and your chakra is, too.'_

" **HA! So you admit it! I'm stronger than Sage Mode. So why do you need it?"**

' _So that I don't have to keeping basically stealing your chakra without your permission.'_

The fox was silent. Naruto assumed he had just gotten what he wanted, but in truth, the fox was taken aback by a human not wanting to take his power. It was so different from his previous Jinchūriki.

Naruto was taken out of his conversation with the Kyūbi by the arrival of Weiss and Yang, as Ruby ran up to Weiss, Blake having explained her story while Naruto was talking with Melissa.

"Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute..." Ruby began rambling, as Weiss ignored her, and stepped over to Blake.

"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-"

"Stop!" The heiress yelled. "Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?" She paused, as Blake stayed silent. "Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided…"

She paused again, as the rest of them looked on in worry, before she exhaled slightly, "I don't care."

Blake's eyes widened slightly as she asked, "You don't care?"

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?"

"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-"

Weiss cut her off, "Ah-bah-bah-bah-bah! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to your teammates. And not some…" She looked around her to Naruto and Sun, the latter scratching the back of his head nervously "Other people."

Blake looked back at Ruby and Yang, before answering "Of course."

Weiss smiled and nodded, before a moment of silence followed, only for Ruby to break both it and the seriousness of the moment, "YEAH! Team RWBY is back together!"

Weiss pointed somewhat accusingly at Naruto and Sun, both of whom were watching Ruby with some amusement, and said, "I'm still not quite sure about how I feel about you two!"

Naruto raised his hands indignantly, "What did I do? I mean, he's a stowaway, but me?"

"Hey!" Sun yelled, eliciting a laugh from the rest of them.

Ruby paused for a moment, looking around, "Hey, wait a minute… Where's Penny?"

* * *

Later that night, Blake and Naruto were called into Professor Ozpin's office. As they rode the elevator together, Blake kept looking over at Naruto, gratitude evident in her expression. He had dropped everything just to give her company when she wanted to hide from her team, and then had even, as he put it, given into his fox side to help Sun. And yet, somehow an entire village had picked on him? She couldn't work it out.

He was a strange enigma. He was clearly very strong, but he didn't usually use his full strength in a fight, because he might hurt his friends. Also, unlike every other Huntsmen or Huntress she had met, he didn't use a highly customized weapon, just his kunai, and on occasion shuriken. In fact, Ruby went nuts every time she saw him using a kunai, because she kept telling him to get something else, something unique.

The elevator reached the top of the tower, and the doors opened, revealing a dimly lit office, with Ozpin sat at his desk, hands crossed and covering the lower half of his face. The two Faunus walked in, awkwardly standing near the elevator until the headmaster gestured to the seats in front of his desk.

"Sit."

They obliged, though Naruto was noticeably nervous. Ozpin began, "Well, this has certainly be an eventful evening."

Blake grunted, while Naruto eyed the mysterious headmaster carefully. He continued, "I'm sure that after a night of thwarting attempted robbery, you both probably just want to go home and take a nap. But, I was hoping that maybe we could have a chance to talk."

Naruto and Blake answered affirmatively. "Wonderful. As you know, in order to enroll at my academy, students must first pass a rigorous entrance exam. Most applicants spend years of preparation training at one of the many combat schools around the world. You are two of the few that did not. And you both passed the exam with flying colors."

Naruto spoke up first, "I was raised in a village where we were trained to fight from a young age. I have experience on the battlefield, sir."

Blake spoke after he finished, "I was raised outside the kingdoms. If you can't fight, you can't survive."

The headmaster focused on her for a moment, "Well, you have most certainly survived, Blake. I admire your drive. And I am proud to run a school that accepts individuals from all walks of life. Rich, poor, Human..." He paused, sipping his coffee and eyeing the both of them. "Faunus..." Blake glared at him.

He spoke to her again, "Why do you wear that bow, Blake? Why hide who you are?"

"You may be willing to accept the Faunus, Professor Ozpin, but your species is not."

Ozpin nodded thoughtfully, "True, but we are continuing to take strides to lessen the divide."

Blake scoffed slightly, "With all due respect, you need to start taking some larger strides. Until then, I'd rather avoid any unnecessary attention. I want people to see me for who I am, not what I am."

"And what are you?" Ozpin asked. She stared blankly.

"I don't understand what you're asking," She said.

"How did you know the White Fang would be at the shipyard tonight?"

"We didn't. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time," Blake answered.

"You wouldn't have been the first. But what happened tonight was not an isolated incident," Ozpin explained. "I may be your headmaster, but I am also a Huntsman, and it is my sworn duty to protect this world from the forces that conspire against it. Blake, Naruto, are you sure there is nothing else you would like to tell me?"

"I'm sure."

"Very well. Thank you for your time, Ms. Belladonna. You may leave. Mr. Uzumaki, a word, if I may," Ozpin said, turning back to Naruto, whose eyes widened just slightly. Blake left, looking back to Naruto before she did.

Once she had left, Ozpin began the recording of Naruto at the docks, fighting more wildly than a whirlwind, including when he ripped off the face of a raccoon Faunus. At the end of the recording, Ozpin looked to Naruto, "Now, what is that ability? I neglected to say this in front of Ms. Belladonna, but you have no records whatsoever. Why is that?"

Naruto answered his second question first, "My home village, along with any records I may have had, were destroyed by some bandits. We were a relatively unknown village, being paranoid of outsiders, to the point of destroying the remains of our huntsmen to keep our enemies from 'unlocking their secrets,' was what our leader always said."

"Well, that would certainly explain where your records have gone. But what about those red eyes? I suspect that there may be more to it than simply giving in to your animalistic side."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. This man would make an excellent shinobi. He had expertly hidden his disbelief of Naruto when he had told him about his village, moving on from a subject he would hear no more about it. He had also clearly 'done his homework,' as it was.

"I didn't tell this to them, but… in my home village, I was the only Faunus. Very few people had ever even seen a Faunus around where I come from, so I was an anomaly. When I was seven years old, the doctors in the village…" He faked a shudder. "Sorry. They did these… experiments on me, like they were trying to find out what I was. In the process, they affected my fox side, leading it to be more potent and present. That's part of the reason why my whiskers have grown so much. They used to just be single lines."

Ozpin, though he had on a mask of calm, felt frustrated at his race. Such inhumane tests, and on a boy, no less, just because he was different than them. And in the process, they seemed to have created what most humans viewed the Faunus as: wild half-humans.

Nevertheless, he was happy the boy didn't let it control him, and had even found a way to suppress it. But…

"Naruto," Ozpin spoke with concern. "I need you to promise you will not use this ability in the presence of others. And if you must use it alone, be careful not to use it for too long. Several of the White Fang members that you attacked said that they felt menace and anger rolling off of you. If you use this where there are Grimm, you will only bring more."

Naruto nodded, "I won't, unless I need to, to save my friends."

Ozpin smiled warmly, "That is acceptable. Thank you for your time, Mr. Uzumaki. You may go now."

* * *

At the bottom of the elevator, Naruto found Blake waiting, something which surprised him. He assumed that she would've wanted to spend time with her team, since she had been with him all weekend.

"So… What did he want to talk about?" She asked him.

"Oh, not much. Just the whole red eyes thing," Naruto wasn't lying, not really.

"Naruto… I just wanted to say… Thank you."

He smiled, "For what?"

She looked down, "I dragged you into my problems, and yet you instantly dropped everything and spent an entire day keeping me company while I tried to hide from my friends, because I thought they would see me as-"

She was cut off by Naruto pulling her into a friendly hug, "Anytime, Blake. Anytime."

* * *

 **Right! Another chapter done!**

 **And yes, I know the scene with Ozpin happened in an interrogation room. I just screwed up a little, and couldn't think of a good transition to a police precinct. As with many of the continuity breaks, like how in this Blake and Naruto were only missing for one day, it boils down to one thing: LAZINESS!**

 **So, for those of you who hated how I 'nerfed' Naruto, I hope you enjoyed one of his two fight scenes in this one. I don't personally enjoy the stories where Naruto steps all over his opposition with no problems, but I'll grant that Torchwick has no chance against him, at least not alone.**

 **So, because of guest reviews, I need to spend time responding here.**

 **To the guest saying I don't know about the 'Power levels' of Naruto and RWBY, I have this to say: Fuck off. I have read the Naruto manga front to back, I've watched the anime all the way through, and I even have the wiki and a few official data books open to help me with this. And RWBY has far less to know. Rooster Teeth also successfully made an anime where both the really weak people and the god-level people are feasible. I mean, Yang's semblance is kind of proof of that.**

 **It has potentially infinite power, as much as her Aura can take. The same goes for Ruby. She demonstrated more advanced mastery of her semblance at the start of Volume 4, and we haven't even got to the silver eyes yet. Weiss is probably going to have some more tutoring scenes with Winter in Volume 5 like we saw in Volume 3, meaning that the one with the least potential on Team RWBY is Blake, funnily enough, since she started off much better than the rest of her team.**

 **But also, RWBY is that anime where how strong you are doesn't necessarily decide who you can beat. Just look at Emerald. She fucked with the head of the RWBY equivalent to a Jinchūriki, and would have killed her like that if she hadn't slid her foot slightly. Even still, they beat her in the end.**

 **Right, sorry for rambling.**

 **And yes, I know I said in last chapter's AN that I would focus on the OC's this chapter, but I got side tracked with the dramatics. Next chapter, I'm thinking of having no canon scenes, and devoting all of it to Team MDNT.**

 **One of my friends gave me a scary thought, however: Diana hangs out with Nora. I might just have to do that, even if it needs to be in an omake. Speaking of, I'm going to start doing those on occasion, so give me any ideas you want to see happen, like Naruto washing all of the windows of Beacon's tower. And before you ask, no, I'm not doing that one.**

 **I apologized before, I'll apologize now: Sorry for rambling so much. I just get really into these ANs.**

 **Until Chapter 5: The Midnight!**


	5. Chapter 5: The Midnight

**Pairings suggested, in the order they were suggested:**

 **Naruto x Yang**

 **Naruto x Blake**

 **Naruto x Melissa**

 **Naruto x Nora**

 **Naruto x Pyrrha**

 **Naruto x Diana**

 **Naruto x Weiss**

 **Please, don't suggest anymore. I've decided.**

 **No, I will not make Naruto pair with multiple people at once. This is not a harem story. Naruto isn't the kind of person to do that. At least, not unless he is the entire harem. Ebisu, anyone?**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

 **Or RWBY**

* * *

Chapter 5: The Midnight

To some, a weekend spent in the city would be considered a vacation. However, when your weekend is spent hiding from your friends and trying to comfort a girl with cat ears, it would make sense to be exhausted afterwards. Such was the case with Naruto Uzumaki, who had no greater desire than to sleep this Monday morning.

Unfortunately for him, he was on a team with one Diana Grout. As such, he was awoken by a trumpet blast, followed by some kind of fanfare. As he sat up slowly, he found himself pondering the decisions he made in his life to reach this point.

Fully sat up, he was able to see that Diana, in the middle of the night, had put up a sign displaying a childish fox drawing and the words "Welcome Back, Naruto". Melissa had told him that he should expect a warm re-welcome, and so he decided to avoid the attention by sneaking back in after they had all gone to sleep.

No such luck. Diana had somehow designed an entire song and dance number in the night, and was now performing it to greet Naruto's morning. They had no classes that day, meaning she might have literally gone on all day, had it not been for Melissa asking her to stop.

"Sorry!" Diana apologized, in her non-apologetic way. It wasn't that she was trying to be mean; far from it. She just seemed to not get that her fun didn't translate into other people's fun.

"It's ok, Diana," Naruto said, getting up and putting on his jacket. He made a note to go into Vale to purchase more clothes as soon as he could. He wasn't a criminal by any means, but that didn't mean he was opposed to taking money from actual criminals. The White Fang members at the docks, for whatever reason, had been carrying enough Lien in total for him to buy, if he was estimating correctly, 4 sets of clothes.

Either that, or he could buy a weapon or parts to one, like Ruby had been practically hounding him to do. He was thinking that it might be cool to try and learn how to fight with a chokutō, or maybe something ranged, like a pistol, or something else small that he could work into his style.

Or even a chokutō pistol. That sounded like fun. After all, Troy had the whole knife-pistol thing, and he fought almost just like Naruto, but a lot more confusingly for his opponent.

"So, captain, what are we doing today?" He asked Melissa. She shrugged, not having any ideas.

"I don't know. We don't have any classes, so we're free. Anyone got any ideas?"

Diana, who now hung by her knees off of the closet, brought up going to spar all day. Naruto shook his head.

"Sorry, Diana. I'm still tired from this weekend," he said. It wasn't a lie; he had used far too much speed when he had been combating the White Fang and Torchwick. His legs would probably be sore for at least a day, according to the fox. "We could go to Vale, spend some time there. I was thinking about buying a weapon, anyways."

Troy nodded his head, saying "It would make sense for you to get something. With how effective you are with your kunai, it is difficult to imagine what you could do with a weapon suited to you."

Melissa nodded, thinking back to last night, what she had seen Naruto do with his bare hands. "Well, it's settled then; we're going to Vale!" Naruto cheered.

* * *

As it turned out, Bangs and Bombs took custom weapon orders. They also had a policy for students, where they were only required to pay once the students began to take on paying missions.

Finishing his order, Naruto met up with his team, who were perusing the shelves, trying to waste time. They seemed to be in some sort of debate.

"No, I think you're wrong. A sword would be much better for it," Melissa argued. Troy shook his head.

"But if you have two daggers, then you have potentially twice the effectiveness."

"Naruto, what do you think: Sword or two daggers?" Melissa asked, seeing him walk over.

His eyes widened at being put on the spot, "Wait, what?"

Melissa rolled her eyes, "For beating a boarbatusk, dummy."

"Hm…" Naruto thought for a moment. "I would have to go with the daggers. They would let you strike more vulnerable spots in less time."

Troy turned to her with an air of triumph, "There, you see? Naruto agrees with me."

"Yeah, but his fighting style relies on getting as many hits in as possible in as little time as he can. He's just biased," Melissa countered. Troy groaned.

"Never mind, then. Shall we go?"

Naruto nodded, "I wish I had brought my haori with me. I could've gone and gotten a few spares."

"Hey! No trying the weapons in the main store area!" one of the employees yelled at Diana, who had just fired off a small handheld cannon into the ceiling. She smiled only somewhat sheepishly.

* * *

"What about more bowling?" Melissa asked. Naruto shook his head.

"There's got to be something else we can do."

"We could go to a firing range," Troy suggested, looking over at the one on the corner. Naruto looked at Melissa, and they both shrugged, following Troy into the range.

Inside, they saw a rather impressive array of weapons, from pistols to a minigun, weapons of all shape and size. Naruto saw several kinds he could recognize from his experiences since coming to Remnant, but there were even more that he couldn't name, that he didn't recognize.

There were a number of them that looked like long tube, with a cone on the end. Melissa commented when she saw them, "Wait, they let you fire rocket launchers in here? The hell?" Naruto wasn't sure what a rocket was, but it sounded like fun.

Troy selected a pair of pistols that matched his own, Melissa picked a rifle, Diana didn't grab anything, and Naruto wasn't sure how to work a gun. He grabbed a pistol identical to the ones that Troy had, so that at least he could ask for help when he needed it.

Paying for ammunition and an hour on the range, the MDT portions of MDNT got to watch Naruto struggle to understand how a gun works. Troy tried to explain it to him, only for Naruto to ask him afterwards what the safety was.

Deciding to give a short demonstration, Troy took Naruto's pistol, running through the steps to get it to fire. Afterwards, he undid everything he did and handed it back to Naruto, who definitely learned better by seeing. He managed to remember what Troy had done, and mimic it well enough. After a half hour. If nothing else, they got a comedy show out of their hour.

By the time they had to leave, Naruto had successfully fired four rounds, all of which completely missed the target. Each time, he stared at the gun for a minute, as if he couldn't believe it worked. To Melissa, it was like he had never seen a gun before, even though his village was full of huntsmen.

As it happened, a firing range was not a fun place for two trained marksmen and two people who didn't use guns. On one hand, two of them hit a bull's-eye every time, while the other two either missed every time or didn't shoot at all. Also, some older guys kept trying to hit on Diana, but she didn't seem to get it.

Now, because Naruto's stomach had growled profusely after leaving the firing range, Team MDNT found themselves at a noodle stand Naruto had sniffed out from a distance. The Faunus was like a bloodhound when it came to ramen.

By the time he was finished, more than twenty bowls sat in front of Naruto. Both his teammates and the owners of the stand gaped at him. For the first time, Diana was speechless.

* * *

Monday went by in a flash, probably because the trip to and from Vale took a while, despite being close and using airships. Naruto kept insisting that he could make it back to Vale faster if he ran. To prove his point, he did, and had stood waiting for them until they got to Beacon.

But that was yesterday, and today they had multiple classes, leaving them busy all day. Luckily, they started with Port, giving them all more time to sleep in the morning. Except Diana, who didn't seem to need sleep, ever. Afterwards, the only class everyone looked forward to: combat class. Ironic, considering who taught it.

They had begun to do random matches, as Glynda said, to keep people from just sparring with their friends all the time. Today, the first match, one that drew Naruto's attention, was Diana fighting Nora. Both of them had taken their places on either side of the stage.

"Begin," Professor Goodwitch said.

Nora went flying at Diana, hammer held over her head, but her target dodged to the left, just a moment before the hammer came down. Diana's black sword came flying off her back, as she swung it around to force Nora to dodge upwards, off the ground.

After the hammer-wielder did, Diana swung Papa Chop vertically upwards, right towards Nora's middle. She was blocked by Magnhild, Nora's hammer, and dodged backwards as the hammer was shot off, propelling Nora backwards into the air.

She transformed her hammer into its grenade launcher form, using her range to her advantage by bombarding the rainbow girl with explosion after explosion. Diana leapt into the air, towards Nora, getting behind her, hitting her with the blunt side of her blade, sending her flying into the ground. Diana attempted to follow up by slamming the extended hilt of her blade down into Nora, but was once again blocked by the hammer, as Nora swung her feet around and knocked Diana over.

Nora sprung to her feet, slamming her hammer into the spot where Diana lay. The impact kicked up a cloud of dust around them, but Diana flew upwards out of it, sword in hand. She placed her palm on the end of the hilt, and kicked off the ceiling, rocketing down into the cloud of dust. When it cleared, both of them were stood a distance apart, panting slightly.

They gripped their weapons tightly, as they both charged each other, Diana swinging horizontally while Nora swung upwards. The result being Diana dodging to the left as Nora ducked under the swing. Diana had turned to the side to dodge, leaving Nora a chance to attack. She took it, and Diana was sent soaring into a wall.

Diana took only a moment to recover, but in that moment, Nora came from behind, cracking the floor as she swung downwards. The attack missed, but the resulting shockwave sent Diana flying once more, as her Aura dropped into the red and Goodwitch stopped the match.

"Well, that took much longer than expected, however we have enough time for a second match," she paused, hitting a few buttons on her scroll, and beginning the randomization process.

"And the match will be… Ms. Xiao Long, and her opponent… will be Lie Ren."

Naruto could see Yang's grin as she made her way down to the arena floor. She got way too excited for fights.

* * *

"I still say that was an unfair hit!" Yang complained. Ren, to his credit, was hiding a grin surprisingly well.

"You left yourself open with your last strike. I simply took the chance," explained the pseudo-ninja.

The rest of Teams RWBY, JNPR, and MDNT had gathered at lunch, having the pleasure of listening to Yang whine about the outcome of her match the entire time.

Naruto turned to Ren, "Could you at least have let her thought she had a chance? Maybe then she wouldn't be going on about it."

He gave Yang a sly grin, as if taunting her. She narrowed her eyes and turned up her nose, crossing her arms and looking away, "Hmph."

"What? Diana isn't crying about her match," Naruto said, pointing to the rainbow girl who was scarfing down muffins, as Ruby watched her with amazement, following each muffin with her wide eyes.

"Yeah, but that's cause she never gets upset at anything. Didn't you see her during the match? Look, sorry. I guess I'm just a little… _Yangry_ ," she joked. Naruto lowered his face to his hand, rubbing his eyes with his index finger and thumb.

" **Kit, you're sure we can't just-"**

' _No, Kyūbi. We're not killing Yang.'_

" **I wasn't going to say that."**

' _Yes, you were.'_

"Yang, that was awful. Please, don't do that again," he said to her, not looking up.

"GUYS!" Ruby suddenly yelled, startling all of them, and making Diana fly upwards. When she came back down, Ruby continued. "I just realized that the semester ends tomorrow. We won't have class for two whole weeks!"

They all turned back to eating, with Weiss hardly looking up to reply, "Yes, Ruby. We know."

"Oh, right. Sorry," she apologized sheepishly, turning red. Naruto patted her on the back.

"Ah, don't worry about it, Ruby. Weiss forgets a lot of things."

"Hey!" Said the heiress, nearly shouting. Ruby giggled at her partner. "You're still not off the hook yet, Mister."

Yang turned to her, "Weiss, enough already. We get you don't like Faunus by nature, but Naruto's our friend."

Weiss brought up an argument she had used before, "And yet he refuses to tell us anything about his past. At least Blake told us."

"Oh, what? I have to spill my heart and soul out to you just because I have whiskers?" Naruto said, somewhat angry.

Weiss raised her hands defensively, "Alright, fair enough. I just wanted to know. No need to get angry."

Diana turned to Nora, and the two seemed to share a thought.

"Fine," Naruto said, calming himself down.

" **Come now, Kit. At least give her a little scare. You could borrow my chakra for it, if you want."**

Naruto rolled his eyes inside his mind, "No, Kyūbi. She's just misguided. Besides, I'd be suspicious of me."

" **You're no fun, Kit."**

Back in the real world, Diana had gotten several pie tins from somewhere, and had begun to stack them for some strange reason. Not stack them as in putting one in another, but turning them over so that the bottom of each tin touched the bottom of another, and the tops touched the tops.

"Uh… Diana, what are you doing?" He felt the need to ask. He wasn't sure what kind of answer to expect.

"She and Nora are seeing who can stack more," answered Jaune, as Diana was preoccupied. "Didn't you hear them?"

"Heh, heh. No, not really."

* * *

Later that day, Naruto was doing his usual thing, meditating on top of the roof, when he felt his scroll go off in his pocket. He pulled it out, still unsure exactly how to use it. At the moment, it was a simple matter of looking at a message he had received. It was an estimated time for his new weapon.

"A week, huh?"

* * *

Ever since the night at the docks, Naruto had been spending his nights on the roof with Blake, trying to ease her mind, since she was still rattled by the fact that Torchwick had the White Fang working with and for him.

He felt like he was making progress, but truthfully, he couldn't tell. She was such a complex person. On one hand, she still felt like she should be punished for her past actions, while on the other she had moved on completely.

Then one night, while they were both sat against the wall next to the door, she sprung a completely unexpected question on him, "Naruto, how did your parents die?"

He looked away, and she immediately wanted to slap herself. Of course it would be a sensitive topic; how could she be so stupid? He had even told her that they died right after he was born, for God's sake.

"Sorry, Naruto, you don't have-"

"I don't know," he said, cutting her off. She stared at him with concern.

"They died when I was a newborn. I don't know anything about them, and the village had never told me anything about them."

"Nothing?"

"No, nothing at all."

"Sorry for asking about it, Naruto."

He smiled weakly at her, "Don't worry about it, Neko-chan."

She cocked her head at the strange nickname. It sounded like a language that the characters in one of her books sometimes used, but she was fairly sure that that was either a dead language or a fake one.

She was about to ask about it, but the door was flung open, and Pyrrha and Jaune walked out. They were laughing about something, but stopped when they saw Naruto and Blake sat there.

"Oh…uh, sorry," Jaune said. "We'll come back later."

Naruto got up, "Ah, don't worry about it. You two practice up here. Blake and I can talk somewhere else, I'm sure."

"Actually, Naruto, I think I'm going to sleep for the night," Blake replied, stepping over to the door, and leaving Naruto with the members of Team JNPR.

"So... How's your combat coming, Jaune?"

Pyrrha was the one to answer, "Oh, he's doing wonderfully. In fact… Naruto, do you think you could help out?" He nodded. She turned to Jaune. "Is that alright?"

Jaune nodded as well, "Of course it is. He's the one who got me to go apologize to you after I was a jerk."

So, for the next hour or so, before he left, Naruto put Jaune through the ringer with his incredible speed. He had to admit though, Jaune's swordsmanship was very similar to the style Pyrrha fought with.

Eventually, he decided to let Jaune and Pyrrha practice alone, and he left to go back to his room. If he was any later, he was worried that Diana might make another sign for him in the morning.

* * *

The next morning, fortunately, there was no sign strung up in their dorm. Naruto was even able to wake up on his own, and not have Diana scare him awake. In fact, the rainbow girl didn't even seem to be in the dorm. Which, rather than being comforting, worried Naruto rather a lot. That meant she could be anywhere.

Getting dressed, and this time bringing his haori with him, Naruto decided to go into Vale. His new weapon was supposed to be finished today anyways, so he at least had a reason. Also, he could get copies of his jumpsuit. He would need to get much more money before he could get another haori, but with dust imbued into it.

Realizing something he needed to do if he didn't want to be attacked by a massive gardening tool, Naruto went over to Team RWBY's dorms to be sure to invite Ruby with him. When she had found out he had ordered a new weapon without her, he was worried she might try to kill him before he said that she could come with him when he picked it up.

Yang answered the door, "Naruto? What are you doing here?" She narrowed he eyes. "Are you here for Blake?"

"Nope. Ruby. She wanted to come with me when I got my new weapon. I'm here so she won't kill me."

Yang laughed, "Yeah, if anyone would… Ruby! Naruto is going to pick up his new weapon!"

Naruto expected her to come bursting from inside the dorm, but he heard something down the hall. A door flew open, and Ruby burst out of the bathroom, down the hall, and into her room. All in a hastily wrapped towel. Naruto, mouth agape, pointed from the bathroom to inside the dorm.

"Wha-" he started to ask. Ruby appeared in the door next to Yang, fully dressed and with her scythe on her back to boot.

"I'M READY!" She shouted excitedly. She was almost visibly shaking with excitement. It was as though her weapons obsession had somehow gotten worse with time.

"Oooook… Let's go!" Preparing himself, Naruto made sure to send just a bit of chakra to his legs, so that he could catch up with Ruby when-

And there she went. Naruto gave chase, but she was _incredibly_ fast. Even Kakashi-sensei would have difficulty keeping up with her. By the time Naruto caught up to her, she had stopped, halfway between Vale and Beacon, to wait for him.

Once he caught up, they took off at relatively even speeds, making it to Vale in a total of two minutes, twenty three seconds. Once in the city, they slowed it down, so that they wouldn't hit anyone. Once they stopped, Naruto felt a huge gust of wind, and turned to see a number of leaves had followed in the trail of whatever it was Ruby had done. The streets weren't terrifically crowded that day, despite more and more students from other academies arriving. He thought he saw a few dressed in parkas, but that may have been his imagination.

He definitely noticed, however, when a student called out to him, "HEY! ANIMAL! LEAVE THAT LITTLE GIRL ALONE!" He glared at the person who shouted at him, seeing him snickering with his friends, that he had the balls to insult a passerby.

"One moment, Ruby. I need to do something," He said, turning his head slightly to look in between Ruby and the group of students across the street. She looked offended on his behalf, and also a little upset at the racists. Nevertheless, she nodded.

In an instant, the students stopped laughing, as the one who had shouted had a kunai placed to his neck by the Faunus they had elected to insult. "Oh, don't stop laughing now. Surely your entire group can take me? The worthless, wild animal?" Naruto taunted them, leaving several of them reaching for various weapons.

Before any of them could make a move, Naruto struck the ringleader on the back of the head with the hilt of his kunai, and stood ready to fight the rest of them.

" **Kit, are you sure I can't have a little fun? What if I promise not to kill any of them?"**

' _No, Kyūbi. That would cause too many questions. That's why I'm not using my jutsu in the first place. Besides, I made a promise to Professor Ozpin.'_

" **I hate you when you're smart about things. Fine, carry on."**

As at least four of the students attacked Naruto, they were taken down by an outside force. It wasn't Naruto who did it, as he was preoccupied talking with the Kyūbi. No, they were taken down by the strange man who walked up behind them, looking directly at Naruto.

The man had a full-length brown coat on, and a mask over his face. Not too much unlike Kakashi-sensei's mask, except that this one covered his eyes, with little bits over them for him to see out of. Naruto couldn't tell much about him, other than he must have been a huntsmen. He looked at the blond.

"You know, it isn't smart to fight a group of people like that, but you've got guts, kid. Meet me some time."

With that, he threw some kind of card at Naruto, and promptly left. Naruto was left staring at his back as he casually walked away, like he hadn't just taken down four guys in the time it took Naruto to get in and out of his mind.

Naruto walked back over to Ruby, who looked at him with moderate concern. Partially for in he was ok after the continued racism, and partially because of the fight and the man who had appeared. She said that he had made her feel nervous, just talking to Naruto. Like at any moment he and Naruto would both up and vanish.

"What's that?" She asked, tilting her head towards the card in his hand. He looked down at it, turning it over as he studied it.

"I don't know. He tossed it to me, then left. But it's blank."

"Huh, Weird. Oh, well. Let's go!" She exclaimed, back to her usual pep. They began to walk to Bangs and Bombs, both of them forgetting the encounter as they talked.

"Aw, come on! Tell me what kind of weapon it is!" Ruby complained, looking at Naruto with puppy eyes.

' _Huh. So that's_ not _a jutsu.'_

" **Idiot."**

' _HEY!'_

"Sorry, Ruby, but you'll have to wait 'til we get there." She turned forward in a huff, crossing her arms as she did.

"Aw, don't be like that!"

"No."

* * *

"Hey, look, there it is!" he yelled, spotting the store. Ruby looked over at it.

"Huh. That's convenient," she said. "Hey, wait. There're no people between there and here. Let's hurry this up!"

"Wait, wh-"

And there she went again, leaving behind Naruto and a gust of wind. He sighed, having already dealt with this once today. Why must he always be friends with the strangest people?

A moment later, Naruto met with Ruby outside the store, as she was waiting in anticipation. He couldn't tell if she was excited for him getting his weapon, or for herself having the opportunity to see it.

"Oh, hey, Naruto?" Ruby asked him, just as they walked in. "What are you gonna call it?"

He shrugged. It was something he had been thinking over for the last several days, but had found no answer to thus far. "I don't know. I'm-" he did have the chance to tell her what he was planning to do, as she shrieked in shock.

"WHAT?!" She stared at him with wide silver orbs, like he had just killed everyone she knew. "You don't have a name for it? You've got to have a name, Naruto!"

"Yes, Ruby, I know. I just can't think of one."

"Really? Nothing you can think of?"

"No," he finished, as they reached the counter. "Hi. I'm here to pick up my weapon. I was told it would be finished today?"

"Name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"One moment," said the clerk, apparently rather disinterested. A moment later, a panel on the counter opened, as a platform rose up. Mounted on it was what was clearly a bladed weapon, but sheathed in orange trimmed with black, with a hilt to match.

"Thank you, come again."

Leaving the store, Ruby stepped in front of Naruto, "Come on! Let me see it!"

He grinned. "Not until next combat class," he said, fully aware that that wouldn't happen for another week.

"Aw, you're the worst!"

* * *

Ruby had left, mildly disgruntled, after Naruto had rejected, by his count, her twenty-seventh attempt to get him to show her his weapon. Now alone, sat in a tree in the park, Naruto held his new chokutō in his hands, still in its maple sheath.

He gripped the hilt, also maple and curving inwards slightly for ease of holding. He pulled it out slowly, inspecting it as he went. It gleamed in the sunlight breaking through the branches. He had given them his hitai-ate, asking them to work it into the blade, and now the Leaf's emblem was imbedded just above the hilt. The blade went for just over two feet, before ending by slanting backwards into a point.

As he had asked, he could also transform it into a pistol modeled after one he had seen in the store, an AMT Automag V pistol, caliber .50AE. According to the man he had placed the order with, it would pack quite a punch.

A thought went through his head, of what might happen if he ever returned to the Leaf Village, with this weapon in tow.

Of course, he would need to learn how to use a pistol before he could try it out in a fight. He may be able to fire it, but as he had seen with his team, he had no idea how to aim it. Perhaps Troy could help him out.

* * *

"It just isn't fair!"

"Yes, Ruby, I get it. You wanted to see his weapon. But didn't you get to anyways?" Yang responded, not even looking at her sister. The younger girl had been going on about it for the last half hour, and Yang was starting to consider dragging Naruto back to make him show Ruby the sword he had bought.

"No! Not really. I only got to see its sheath, not the actual blade itself," she complained. Yang sighed.

Getting an idea to hopefully either get Ruby to be quiet by confusing her or making her leave, Yang said, "Well, it's probably because he only wants Blake to see his weapon."

"Huh?" Ruby asked, cocking her head to the side. "Wait, how come?"

"Oh, no reason."

"Come on, Yang! Tell me!"

"Nope. Go ask Blake," Yang suggested. Ruby's eyes lit up at the idea.

"Ooh! Thanks, Yang!" Ruby bolted from the room, leaving Yang wondering how in the world that had worked. Weiss came in, looking out at the hallway and back to Yang, confused.

"Why did Ruby just speed down the hallway?" Asked the heiress. Yang half shrugged.

"She wants to see Naruto's weapon, and I told her Blake would probably be the one who gets to see it. I think Naruto just wanted to mess with her, but I'm not the one to let her know that."

"Oh… We're going to have to put up with her whining for the next several days, aren't we?"

"Probably," Yang replied.

"Damn you, Naruto."

* * *

Though it was getting to be rather cold at night, it wasn't really bothersome to one with both a jumpsuit and cloak, leaving Naruto with no excuse to not keep up on his Sage training. He could tell he was getting closer, since he was beginning to be able to pull in small amounts of energy. He needed to become more attuned to the world before he could really start getting to work on it. But, with time, he would get it. Until then at least he had an excuse to use the Kyūbi's chakra, if the fox let him.

Tonight, as he was just starting his training, he heard a faint noise behind him, and looked back to see the door opening. Wondering who would come up here, since Jaune and Pyrrha always used the same roof, and he wasn't on it, he waited a moment, only for the door to close, as whoever it was left.

"That was strange," Naruto remarked to himself. He half-expected the Kyūbi to chime in, but the fox stayed silent, presumably because he was asleep. "I should do the same, I guess."

He stood, walked over to the door, and found it had been locked. "Oh, wow. That must have been a janitor. Why did he lock it if I was up here?" he asked himself. "Oh, well. It's been a while since I climbed down a building, anyways."

Naruto looked over the edge, checking for open windows, before he moved chakra to his hands and legs, so that he could climb down on his stomach, so that people looking out their windows wouldn't see him walking vertically. That might cause just a bit of confusion.

He was about halfway down when he heard a window near him open. He panicked slightly, and dropped the rest of the distance. It was only a hundred feet or so, a much smaller distance than his record. He looked up, and saw a mane of blonde hair looking right at the place he had just been stuck to the wall. He couldn't tell exactly who it was, but he only knew one other person with hair that yellow.

* * *

The next morning, all of Team RWBY and Team MDNT were sat at a table together in the lunchroom. Team JNPR was off doing a team-training session. It had won their vote of the activity of that day, the only other one being Nora's, which was cooking pancakes.

"And then I grabbed him, but where he _really_ didn't want to be grabbed," Yang was saying. "And I asked him again, more…forcefully. I have to say, at least he had some balls. He got his men to attack me, but I kicked their asses."

"Yang, why did you open the window last night?" Weiss asked. Naruto hid his panic behind swallowing his ramen.

"Yeah, it was weird. I looked one moment and saw someone out there, but when I opened the window and checked again, they were gone," she said, no one noticing Naruto's wide eyes. He had almost been found out. He had to be careful in the future. He would rather avoid awkward questions like how he could walk on walls. He wasn't sure how he would even begin to explain that one.

"Yang, I think you were probably just seeing things," Weiss rationalized. Ruby nodded, still glaring at Naruto.

Naruto, remembering his thought yesterday, turned to Troy. "Hey, Troy, do you think you could give me a hand with aiming a pistol? I'd like to learn to use one," he asked of his friend.

"Sure thing, Naruto."

"Hey, Whiskers!" Yang suddenly called to Naruto, who looked at her like a deer caught in headlights. "You were on the roof, right? Did you see anyone climbing down the walls last night?"

He lied, "No. I think you're just going crazy, myself. Well, crazier, I guess."

"I don't think she can," Melissa chimed in, joining Naruto in his joke.

"Hey! At least I'm not _that_ crazy!" Yang defended, pointing at Diana, who for once was simply sitting and calmly eating some pretzel buns. Well, calmly for her. She was digging into it faster than Nora into pancakes. She looked up at the word crazy, then shrugged and went back to eating.

"Hey, leave Diana's insanity out of this!" Naruto continued to joke. Diana gave a thumbs up, still focused on devouring her buns.

* * *

Naruto was sat with his back to the wall behind his bed, staring at the little card he was given. It was completely blank and yet the man had tossed it to him as though it held some kind of information that could be used to find him, especially considering what he had said.

Getting an idea from the only thing he had ever signed, Naruto bit his thumb, smearing a small amount of blood in the top left corner of the paper. Nothing happened.

" **Did you expect that to work? Blood seals don't have a presence in this world."**

Inside his mind, Naruto glared at the fox, "Well, do you have any ideas? I'm all ears."

" **No. You forget, Naruto, that I am as new to this world as you. However, simply seeing the abilities that they have, I should think it's safe to say that they don't know of seals in general, let alone blood seals."**

Naruto sighed. He wanted to find the man, to ask him why he had given Naruto the card. "I don't suppose you have some ancient magical Bijū powers you could use to find him?"

" **No. Not unless he had chakra, or I had had the foresight to track him from when you met him."**

"Will you tell me your name?"

" **I already told you, no."**

"Aw, come on. You are the only friend I have left from back home; I'd like to know a name to call you other than Kyūbi."

" **First, we are not friends. Second, I've told you Kyūbi is good enough."**

"Not to me. To me, that's like when people called me the 'demon brat.' It was hurtful, and rude."

" **Then don't use the word Kyūbi. It's not as though it's difficult to figure out who you're talking to when you're in here."**

"I know, but it's almost worse if I don't call you anything."

" **You just don't like to be pleased, do you?"**

Naruto gave the fox his signature grin, and left the mindscape. Back in the real world, he found Diana poking his forehead. He jumped backwards, only to hit the wall he was already sitting against.

As he rubbed the back of his head, he looked at Diana indignantly, "Why? No, never mind. I should know by now not to question it." He sighed, as the pain receded. "When did you get back?"

She shrugged, "Just now! You were just sitting still with this weird look on your face, so I poked you a bunch!"

He looked her dead in the eye, and told her, "Diana, you're weird."

She just kept smiling, like he hadn't said anything. He got up, putting his haori back on, and left the room.

Walking into the hallway, he looked both up and down it, looking for a suit. He spotted the one he was looking for at the end, rounding the corner.

"HEY! TROY!" Naruto shouted, sprinting down the hallway. Before Troy could even turn back around the corner, Naruto was right in front of him. "Do you have some time? Could you teach me how to aim a pistol?"

"Sure, Naruto."

* * *

Unsurprisingly, the school's firing range was completely unoccupied, as it was a rather nice day to be in Vale, especially with all the new arrivals. For one Naruto Uzumaki and a Troy Davores, this meant they had the entire thing to themselves, and that it was quiet.

"So, before we start, I need to know the caliber of the gun. That will affect a few things about it, kickback included," Troy said upon entering. Naruto pulled out his chokutō, changing it to its pistol form. "That's a beautiful blade," Troy exclaimed as he pulled it out.

"Caliber .50AE," Naruto read. Troy raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't that a little much for your first gun? Never mind, I suppose it makes sense. You'd not kill many Grimm with less. Perhaps a practice pistol may be in order," he said, as he gestured to the weapon shelves.

"Nah. If I don't learn how to fire this one, what's the point?"

"Alright…" Troy said, unsurely. He directed Naruto to one of the windows. "So, the small raised section in the front? That's called the sight. You'll want to line that up for your shots for now, to give you an idea of where the bullet will go when you fire. Once you get a lot of practice, you should be able to do… _this!"_ He shouted the last word, as he pulled his gun up, still looking at Naruto, and hit six consecutive bull's-eyes. Naruto stared slightly, still being amazed how accurately people could shoot in this world.

Back home, of course, there were shinobi who were masters of shuriken jutsu. Naruto, while not a master by any means, was no slouch either, being able to hit small targets from over a hundred yards. The weapons they had here, however, had so much recoil to them that Naruto was amazed anyone could hit anything. Hell, Ruby and Yang both propelled themselves with their weapons.

Regardless, he took Troy's advice, aiming down the sight on top of the gun, and pulling the trigger. He felt the gun fire, and the recoil backwards. He wasn't expecting quite so much, and the result was him nearly smacking himself with his own gun.

"Woah!" he exclaimed loudly. Troy shook his head.

"I tried to warn you…"

"Alright, another try," Naruto fired the gun again, this time holding it as still as he could when he fired it, and this time not experiencing nearly as much recoil. His hands definitely still shook incredibly, though. It felt like someone was vibrating his hands.

Troy raised an eyebrow, "Not much recoil that time, eh?"

Naruto shook his head, "There was, but I held the gun still. My hands feel weird, though."

"Hm. Well, that'll happen. The kinetic energy from the recoil of the gun needs somewhere to go, and since it can only leave through your hands…"

Naruto had no idea what he was talking about, but he nodded as if he did.

* * *

Leaning in, Diana asked Melissa, "Do you know where Troy is?"

"Uh, no. Diana, why are you hanging in the window?"

"For fun!" answered Diana, full smile plastered to her face.

"Diana, you are one of the strangest people I have ever met. But I like you."

Flipping off the window and into the room, Diana turned to the door, "Thanks!" She walked out.

"Huh. Weird. At least it's quiet around here now," Melissa said to herself. Ruby burst into the room not a moment after she finished talking.

"Is Naruto here? Is his new weapon?" She asked, as Melissa rubbed her forehead.

"No, Ruby. You can't see it. It's his to show you when he wants to."

"Awwwww. But how come Blake gets to see it?" asked the young Huntress-in-training.

"What do you mean?" Melissa asked. As far as she knew, Naruto hadn't shown his new sword to anyone but Troy, and that was only so that he could train his marksman skills.

"Yang told me that Naruto would only let Blake see his sword…" Ruby seemed kind of down, like she seriously thought Blake had gotten to see it. Melissa decided to join Yang in the joke.

"Oh, that. Yeah, Blake was telling us how cool it is."

"Aw, come on! I wanna see it!"

"Sorry, Ruby. Not today. Won't you see it next class, anyways?"

"That's! Not! Soon enough!" Ruby whined. Melissa laughed. Ruby left, frustrated that she couldn't see the chokutō until another week.

* * *

"Hey, Ren. How was your teams training?" Naruto asked the 'ninja' at lunch the following day.

"Nora broke the ceiling. Again," he answered, looking sideways at the girl. She was pouring syrup all over her pancakes.

"I feel like I should be surprised, but I'm not," Naruto motioned with his head to Diana. "You know, we really should keep them from meeting. If they do…" Ren and Naruto shuddered. The thought was terrifying.

"Hey, Naruto?" Melissa asked. He swung around to face her. "How come you're not showing your new sword to anyone yet? Ruby _really_ wants to see it."

"It's going to be a surprise, for when classes start back up and I get to fight someone."

"Yeah, but could you at least show Ruby? She might actually explode if you don't."

"Nah, she'll be fine," Naruto answered, waving off the youngest student's hyperactivity.

"I really don't think she will. I mean, she came into our dorm yesterday to get a glimpse at it while you weren't there. She didn't know you had it with you."

"Oh, speak of the devil. Hey, Ruby!" Naruto called to the girl walking towards the table. She gave him something that was between a pout and a glare, and sat down across from him.

She looked up at him, "Please?" He shook his head. "You're mean, Naruto," she said, with no real anger behind it.

"Ah, come on already, Ruby. You'll see it next class."

"But that's not soon enough!" she complained. Everyone else at the table, besides Diana and Nora, who were too focused on eating, was starting to crack up at the conversation.

"Yeah, Whiskers," said Yang, plopping down in the seat next to Naruto. "It's not soon enough." She leaned over, whispering in the Faunus's ear, "I promised her I'd support her, but please don't. This is too funny to watch."

* * *

It was time. Today was the day. Etcetera. Naruto delved into his mind, standing before the great gates that held the Kyūbi.

"Kyūbi!" He shouted. There was the usual rumbling sound, like something gigantic was getting up. But that was only the sound of the Kyūbi breathing.

" **What do you want, brat?"**

"Tell me your name," It wasn't a question this time, it was a command. The Kyūbi scoffed at both the boy's braveness and his stupidity.

" **You know what? Fine. If you wish to know my name, then I will tell you. But first, you must prove yourself to me, Kit."**

"What do you mean?"

" **I mean, prove you aren't like those people who imprisoned me for almost a century. Prove to me that you aren't like the First Hokage, or Madara Uchiha, or anyone else in that wretched village. Prove to me that you aren't after my power."**

Naruto gave his usual foxy grin, "Is that it? Well that's easy!"

" **Of course you would think so."**

"Well, you're asking me to prove I don't want to take your power, right? So then, I'm already doing that."

The fox, at least from what Naruto could see, returned his foxy grin, **"Indeed? Well then, perhaps you will have no difficulty."**

"Alright, then! Let's go!"

" **One moment, Naruto. From what I had heard, the blonde vixen spotted you several nights ago. If you wish to continue this cover of yours, I recommend not using chakra like that again."**

Naruto looked down at the water-ridden stone floor, "Yeah, I know. It really sucks, ya know? That pool of the toads is trouble. If we ever get back, we're destroying it. It could cause no end of trouble for this world."

" **Indeed. For all we know, the toads could be tracked down by the Akatsuki. How would you hide then, Kit?"**

Naruto shrugged, "I guess I would run. I'd fight them in the wild, where no one else could get hurt. I don't want them to get their hands on you."

" **The feeling is mutual."**

"So, what do you think they're after, anyways?" Naruto asked his tenant.

" **I'm unsure. Whatever it is, it would have the power of all nine tai-"** The fox stopped suddenly, lost in his thoughts.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Kyūbi?"

" **Not now. Get out."** With that, the fox released a huge wave of chakra, forcing Naruto from his mind.

Naruto leaned back against his bed, thinking on what the fox had told him.

' _Prove I'm not after his power…'_

* * *

The next few days went by quickly, and before anyone realized it, the last day before the second semester started was upon them. The day found Teams RWBY, MDNT, and JNPR all in the cafeteria once again, all calmly eating lunch. Blake was looking over some kind of sketches in her book.

Yang slid next to her, "Whatcha doing?"

Blake closed her book, "Nothing. Just going over notes from last semester."

Yang caught a grape in her mouth, one thrown to her from another table by Nora.

"Lame."

Nora kept launching fruits at Yang with her spoon. Yang caught the fruit with ease, giving Nora a thumbs-up. Ruby, giving an enormous heave, slammed a binder onto the table, catching everyone off guard. Naruto, not having been paying attention, jumped enough to fall backwards out of his seat. The cover of the binder had written on it "Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Weiss Schnee". However, someone- and it wasn't a mystery who- had crossed the words out with a red marker, and wrote "Best Day Ever Activities" underneath.

Ruby cleared her throat, Sisters... friends... Weiss and people who won't let me see new weapons.

"Hey!" Naruto and Weiss both exclaimed indignantly.

Ruby ignored them, "Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream!"

"This ought to be good," said Yang as she caught another berry in her mouth.

Ruby ignored her, too, "A dream that one day, we would all come together, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!"

Weiss noticed the words on the binder, "Did you steal my binder?"

Ruby brushed it off, "I am not a crook."

Blake, seemingly just now getting involved, looked up at Ruby, asking, "What are you talking about?"

Ruby pointed a finger at her, to emphasize her point, "I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!"

Yang, seeing an opportunity, tried to make a pun, "I always kick my semesters off with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I right?"

Nora tossed an apple at Yang. She glared at hammer-wielder.

Nora called out, "Boooooooooooooooo!"

Ruby explained herself, "Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But, classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today."

Weiss leaned back nervously, "I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store."

Yang, still glaring, picked up an apple and tossed it across the room. Naruto looked at Ruby, "This isn't somehow a ploy to see my chokutō, is it?"

She looked away innocently. Blake seemed unsure, "I don't know. I think I might sit this one out."

Weiss began to give a small speech, "Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team."

Nora shouted, "I got it!"

Weiss continued, "I for one think that-"

She stopped, for she had been cut off by a pie landing directly on her face as she stood. The pie tin fell slightly, and Weiss stood motionless, though it wasn't hard to tell she was almost trembling with rage.

* * *

 **I'm sorry, but I had to end it there. What better place?**

 **Ah, more OC involvement. Always a good thing.**

 **Also, as I said, don't suggest anymore pairings. The decision has** **been made, due to the amount of support I saw for Naruto x Blake. And again, I'm not putting Naruto in multiple pairings at once. Thank you to everyone who suggested one. If you like, feel free to tell me other pairings you want to see. Just none with Naruto and Blake.**

 **You know, I kind of hate it when people can guess plot elements before they happen. I'm not saying who or what, but someone did. I don't even know how, either.**

 **Until Chapter 6! (I'm not putting chapter titles here anymore.)**


	6. Chapter 6: The Unease

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY. Or a pizza restaurant. I might have been hungry when I typed this.**

* * *

Chapter 6: The Unease.

It wasn't often that one could say something was abnormal for a school made for warriors, but, funnily enough, a food fight was one of them. On one side of the cafeteria, Team JNPR were stood around a makeshift tower of tables, a construct Nora had dubbed 'The Castle.'

The other side, Ruby and her team were getting ready to charge at them, with Ruby giving a short speech about justice, as her team rose behind her in a fury of cheers.

And in the middle, having used the remaining tables turned on their sides to construct a small fortress with walls made of two tables stacked on top of each other in a circle, sat Team MDNT, sort-of trapped. In truth, they were enjoying themselves immensely, even though they were about to be in the center of an intense battle.

As they waited, they heard Nora call for the decapitation of Team RWBY, before a number of watermelons and bread loaves flew over them. Melissa looked to her team members. Naruto grinned back, Troy nodded solemnly, and Diana was spraying whipped cream into her mouth.

They emerged from their table fort, only to have to duck under a surfing Ruby. She was using a lunch tray to ride down the table towards Pyrrha, who tried to deflect it only to be launched backwards. Naruto took off like a rocket towards Ruby, and engaged her in a match of speed as they traded only small blows, whirling all around the cafeteria.

Meanwhile, Diana was still eating her whipped cream, while Melissa had floated to the ceiling and was bombarding Blake and Weiss with potatoes and cabbage. Troy had gathered a number of each inside the table fortress and was tossing them up to her.

Weiss was attacked by Nora, whom had impaled an innocent watermelon with a metal pole and was using it as a hammer, sending Weiss flying into a column, collapsing the stone. Ruby broke off from the duel Naruto was having with her, snatching Weiss out of the way of the pillar, though the Ice Queen was still out cold.

Yang got her hands in a pair of turkey, and began charging forwards, breaking through the table fort as she went. Ren met her, holding a pair of celery stalks, as Troy rushed in from behind her holding a stack of plates that he was chucking to Naruto, who had begun to try Ruby's strategy of pinballing through a fight, bouncing back and forth across the fighters. Yang jumped upwards, coming down with a ferocious punch that sent Ren and Troy flying through the air and disrupted the tables enough for Naruto to smack straight into one as he ran at full speed.

Nora charged Yang with her watermelon hammer, forcing Yang to jump backwards to avoid the slam of the watermelon into the ground. Nora followed, attacking again, and once again Yang stepped backwards to avoid it. Both of them rushed each other, with Yang punching downwards while Nora swung her watermelon upwards the same way she had when she had fought Diana.

Nora's attack struck first, sending Yang flying through the air and the roof. Pieces of the roof came down onto Blake who rolled backwards. Meanwhile, Troy and Ren had both recovered from Yang's earlier attack and were fighting one another with celery in a graceful dance of death and vegetables. Diana had seemingly just noticed the fight going on around her.

Blake, as she rolled, grabbed a string of sausages, swinging it the same as she did with the ribbon on her gun. How the two could be used the same way, Naruto wasn't sure, but as Blake swung the sausage at Nora, Naruto grabbed her hand and flipped her through the air towards the entrance. He turned and stepped to the left as Nora came back, tripping her casually as he went.

Blake came back with her sausage, and swung it at Nora and Naruto once more, this time connecting, sending Nora into a vending machine and Naruto into a wall, making spider-web cracks appear behind him. Nora picked up a few of the soda cans that had fallen out of the vending machine, and began chucking them at Blake, who performed several backflips to dodge out of the way. Melissa had flown back down, and tackled Nora to the ground.

Pyrrha, getting an idea, magnetized all of the cans, sending them at Team RWBY and MDNT in a hailstorm of deliciousness. However, the deliciousness was contained within metal cans, meaning that the cans were what hit them. Blake dodge as many as she could, but was sent soaring backwards anyway.

Melissa had flown backwards to avoid them, but since they were sent through the air as well, she was sent crashing down. Troy had disengaged from his battle with Ren to dodge, a feat he managed about as well as Blake. Diana merely caught one and began to drink it, even as the cans carried her into a wall.

Ruby stood, somewhat menacing look in her eye as she surveyed the scene. Her team was down, Team MDNT was down, and most of Team JNPR was still standing. She didn't want to, but…

She took off, faster than any of them had seen yet. Team JNPR stared as she created a whirlwind of cans, tables, food, and stone pillars behind her. When she reached them, they each briefly tried to resist, only to be swept up in the windstorm, and carried all the way to the back wall, where they were held briefly, before the barrage of soda and food swept into them.

And then, as if it was dramatic timing, Glynda Goodwitch burst into the room.

* * *

Ozpin came up behind the fuming Glynda, who was glaring ferociously at the twelve kids responsible for turning the cafeteria into a near-warzone. When she had come in, there was a hole in the ceiling, several of the pillars had been destroyed, all of the tables were scattered about the room, and for some reason the back wall and a large portion of the floor was painted in neon colors.

Now the same kids sat around, laughing at their experience. It was infuriating that they didn't feel even a little ashamed.

"Let it go," Ozpin advised. She sighed profusely.

"They're supposed to be the defenders of the world," she retorted, still glaring.

Ozpin turned away, leaving, "And they will be. But right now, they're still children. So why not let them play the part?" He turned back, focusing on Naruto. "After all, it isn't a role they'll have forever."

He turned around once more, and left the lunchroom. He sighed to himself. Ever since the school year had started- no scratch that. Ever since _before_ the school year had started, he had been concerned about one thing constantly: Who was the blond boy?

He had said he was from a destroyed village, far away from any Kingdoms, that was very secretive. And yet, in all of his time, Ozpin had never heard of anything of the sort. People had always banded together when fighting against the Grimm. It was what had led to the formation of the Kingdoms in the first place.

On top of that, there was the hatred people had reported from the blond, the night of the dock incident. He had said it was something like an experiment gone wrong, but Ozpin could tell he wasn't being entirely honest.

But none of that was what bothered Ozpin. No, not at all. What bothered the old headmaster was the fact that he couldn't feel any kind of Aura from Naruto. None at all. As far as Ozpin knew, all living things had an Aura. Every. Single. Thing.

For the boy to not have an Aura… Well, the possibilities were potentially unlimited, though none of them were plausible. He was glad he seemed to have been the only one who picked up on it. If anyone else knew about the boy with as much Aura as a Grimm, they might actually try and kill him.

* * *

"Hold on, you did what?!" Blake asked, leaning away and staring at her blond friend.

"Hey, he was asking for it! Besides, if he didn't want to say hello, than my godfather wouldn't have walked into the ladies bathhouse. All I did was lock the door!" Naruto defended.

"Oh, that poor, poor man. Are you sure he didn't just walk in by mistake?" Naruto snorted.

"R-i-i-i-i-i-ight. Ero-Sennin walking into a perverted situation on accident. Good one, Blake."

"Really? He was that bad?"

"You have literally no idea how perverted he could get," Naruto answered, thinking back to when he had met the pervy old man. "Ah, good times. At least, I _think_ they were good. I don't really remember what it was like at the time, though."

"So, you mentioned he taught you how to control your Aura better. What did you mean?" asked the raven-haired girl.

"Oh, not much. Just a few different ways for me to emit it. Nothing terrific," Naruto lied. He still couldn't make the Rasengan without a clone, so he hadn't had the chance to use it for months. Hm… Another thing to add to the list of things he needed to learn.

"Could you show me?" She asked. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well, not here. One of them was created by our fourth leader to kill Grimm, so it's a little destructive, and I'd hate to break this nice courtyard, or the fountain," he said, gesturing behind them.

"Well, alright. Let's go to the woods, then. They sound interesting, especially with what we've seen Ren do in combat class," she said. The two Faunus began to make their way to the woods, but before they got very far, they found their path blocked by a large boy in armor.

Naruto groaned inwardly, "What do you want, Cardin?"

The still-racist sneered, "I just happened to notice two filthy animals walking around the grounds, and figured I'd get rid of them." He looked around mockingly. "And what's this? No teammates to help you this time? Well, in that case…"

He started towards them, apparently under the impression he could take them. In the time he took sauntering over to them, Naruto said to Blake, "Well, I can try it here, but I haven't done it in a while. It might not work."

To himself, Naruto was hoping he could at least make the small ones that were easier, but that held less power. He raised his lower arm out in front of himself, upper arm still at his side. He started to emit chakra out of his palm, trying to spin it at the same time. He succeeded in making a _very_ small ball of chakra.

Convinced it would be enough, Naruto held his arm out just a little more into the abdomen of the advancing bully, who had stopped as Naruto was making the Rasengan. Where the sphere made contact with boy, a gust of force could be felt, as Cardin was sent skidding back several feet, still stood upright because of his huntsmen training. His mouth was open, and his eyes could match plates.

"Wow, Naruto. I didn't even know something like that was possible," Blake sounded impressed. Naruto wasn't, however. He was staring at his hand, where he had held the Rasengan. It was throbbing slightly. It was like the chakra had reacted to Cardin's Aura.

' _Hm… Kyūbi?'_ Naruto asked the fox. _'Any ideas?'_

" **Aura usually protects its wielder, yes? Perhaps his Aura had attacked you through the technique. Regardless, I think it would be best if you not use that technique on humans until we know what happened."**

' _Have I ever told you that you're very smart?'_

" **Right though you are, you only think that because I am brilliant compared to you."**

' _Why is it that you insult me in every conversation we have?'_

" **Because, moron, you make it so very easy to."**

While Naruto was talking with the Kyūbi, Cardin had recovered from having the wind knocked out of him by whatever it was the animal had done. He advanced again, seeing that it was distracted, looking at its hand with a concerned look on its face. Seeing his chance, he pulled out his mace, and raised it high above the Faunus, and-

Naruto held his hand up nonchalantly, catching the mace without even really thinking about it. In fact, he hadn't even stopped his conversation with the fox. Cardin was just too slow to catch him off-guard. He came out of his conversation, and realized he was hold his hand up with something in it.

He looked up, only to see a very angry Cardin trying to get his mace back. Naruto grinned as he let the mace go, causing Cardin to fall backwards on his ass. Blake gave a small chuckle as he hit the ground, swearing loudly.

He glared up at Naruto, getting up, "You little shit. You better hope I don't-"

He was cut off by Naruto angrily shouting at him, "What? Hope you don't what? I just caught your damned mace without even having to think about it? You try to fight me, and I'll kick your ass, dattebayo!"

As Cardin ran, Blake was giggling slightly. Naruto turned to her, sheepishly.

"What? What's so funny?" he asked.

"What does 'dattebayo' mean?" she asked, as he began to rub the back of his head, smiling his foxy grin.

"Ehh, it's just a phrase. Nothing special."

" **But very annoying."**

' _Shut up.'_

"You might actually be weirder than Diana, you know that?"

"Hey!" he said indignantly. She laughed some more, though this time at his expense. He groaned. "Aw, come on!"

* * *

Unknown to the Beacon students, who were simply enjoying a bright, sunny day, elsewhere in the city, a certain group was meeting, with one of them angry at two others, another angry at the other three, and the two amused by the entire situation, even when they probably should have been nervous.

"I thought I made it clear that you would eliminate the would-be runaway," said the red-wearing woman, anger dripping from her voice. The familiar man almost cowered.

Roman Torchwick tried to defend himself, "I was going to..."

One of the two, Emerald, took this chance to speak up, "He was going to escape to Vacuo! Mercury and I decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat."

Mercury stepped in, getting off topic, "I think he was some sort of cat, actually."

"What? Like a puma?"

"Yeah, there ya go."

The woman turned to her subordinates, still furious, "Quiet. Did I not specifically instruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?"

Behind her, Torchwick was laughing at them silently as he pointed at them.

Emerald nervously defended her actions, "I just thought..."

Torchwick mimed a throat being slit behind her.

"Don't think... obey," the woman said.

She wheeled around to face Torchwick, who ceased his taunting of Emerald immediately. "And you," she said, beginning to scowl. "Why wasn't this done sooner?"

As if to demonstrate his point more effectively, the mobster gestured to his right, then his left, then to both sides at once, "Eh? Eh? EHHH?" To his right, and left, and behind him, there were massive shipping containers full of a single thing. "Sorry if I've been a little busy stealing every speck of Dust in the Kingdom!"

Mercury mocked him, "You're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask." Emerald laughed at the remark.

Roman turned to him with a dirty look, "Look around, kid. I've got this town running scared!" He turned to face the Dust. "Police camping out at every corner, Dust prices through the roof, and we're sitting pretty on an old warehouse with more Dust crystals, vials, and rounds than we know what to do with!" He whirled back around to face them. "Speaking of which, if you guys wouldn't mind filling me in on your grand master plan, it might make my next string of robberies go a little smoother!"

The woman began to walk towards Torchwick, "Oh, Roman. Have a little faith." She gently caressed his face. "You'll know what you need when you need to know it." The mobster looked to the side at her hand, then away with a grunt. Besides, we're done with Dust." She began to walk away.

Roman looked confused, "Ooookay, then, what now?"

The woman smirked, "Two things. Have the White Fang clear out this building. I'll send you the details and coordinates tonight. And second, I want you to track down the Faunus with red eyes that you said attacked you. Anyone with that kind of power could be useful…"

Torchwick groaned. First, he had to work with the animals, and now, he had to get one- one which he had fought and attempted to kill- to somehow join up with Cinder? And on top of that…

"Coordinates?"

Cinder turned back to him with a sly smile, "We're proceeding to Phase Two."

* * *

The next morning, Naruto woke up, not to the sound of either an alarm or Diana, but rather to the sound of many, many airships. Glancing out the window, he could see an armada of the flying machines, as well as a few very large ones, ships that he hadn't seen before. Presumably, then, this was Remnant's military that he had heard so much about. Why it was here was a question for some other time. For now, he and his teammates had a class to get to, one in which a young girl would finally get her dream come true.

In combat class, Naruto noticed that there were many new faces. Looking around, he realized that they must have been the students from other Kingdoms, come here for the Vytal Festival. How he realized this? He saw the group of Atlas kids from when he and Ruby had gone to get his chokutō. He smirked darkly at them, as a few of them scowled while the rest nervously turned away.

Seeing the mop of blonde he was looking for, Naruto made his way over to where his team and Team RWBY were all sat. As he did, he would have to be the most oblivious person to exist not to notice Ruby staring at him in anticipation. No, seriously. The entire time he was walking over to them, sitting down, and beginning to talk to them, she kept her silver eyes firmly fixed on him.

Professor Goodwitch walked into the classroom, down on the arena floor, surveying the stands above her. She narrowed her eyes just slightly at Teams RWBY and MDNT, for reasons known. Naruto waved cheekily.

"Now, as I'm sure many of you have noticed, we have new arrivals among us today. For the next few months, they will be joining you in many of your classes, as they stay here in anticipation of the Vytal Festival. As such, rather than use the randomization process, I shall allow volunteers to come forth and pick their opponents. Are there any-"

Before she had a chance to finish, Ruby's hand shot into the air, as Naruto lazily raised his own.

"Ah yes. Ms. Rose, please choose your opponent."

She pointed instantly at Naruto, "Him!" A few of the new arrivals chuckled at her attitude towards it, not having grown used to the girl yet. Glynda called them both down, and they once again stood across from each other, ready to fight. "So, Naruto? Thought up a name yet?" She called over.

He nodded, "Yeah, actually. I'll tell you afterwards."

"Begin!"

Naruto, rather than be slow and dramatic about it, instantly pulled out his sword, much to Ruby's delight. She let out a small squeal at the sight of the finely polished blade, and the marking at the bottom of it.

But he wasn't finished. He wasn't planning on going in for a melee battle, so he shifted over to its pistol form. She squeaked a little, not knowing that it was also a gun. Before she knew it, the delightful sight was replaced by a blur, as he began to speed around her, starting off small at only about 90 miles per hour. She grinned, getting out her scythe and matching his speed with ease.

The students in the stands tried to follow the fight, mostly. Yang turned from her cheering to Blake, who was pouring over the same book as yesterday at lunch. "Hey, come on, Blake! Don't be reading now! Focus on my sister fighting your boyfriend!" She teased the girl, who blushed deeply and began to sputter a little about how Naruto wasn't her boyfriend, but Yang just turned back to the fight.

Down on the arena floor, Naruto was trying to get used to actually using his gun in a fight. In training with Troy, the suit-wearing member of Team MDNT had had Naruto shoot a single target a hundred times. Of those hundred, Naruto had made a bull's-eye seventeen times, hit elsewhere on the target another fifty-seven times, and missed entirely twenty-six times.

Fighting the tiny speedster, Naruto wasn't able to tell how many of his shots hit their mark, if any. He was mostly aiming for her legs, trying to get the force of the impact to stop her in her tracks, since the bullet itself wouldn't do much damage through her Aura.

Seeing he was getting nowhere, he switched back to his chokutō, and upped his speed as he went straight for her. A second later, he realized his mistake, and leapt upwards to avoid her scythe as it swung right to where he was a moment ago. He needed to remember that she could track his movements. Go figure, being able to move at nearly the speed of sound means you've got pretty good reflexes.

He hit the ceiling feet first, then used his force against the ceiling to propel himself back downwards, grasping the chokutō by the end of its hilt. He was blocked by the oversized red gardening tool/sniper rifle, and he used his hand to push off the weapon, back across the arena. He and Ruby regarded each other for a moment before continuing.

As the fight continued in much the same way, Naruto could tell the blade was a bit too long. Perhaps getting an inch or two off might help with that. It just didn't feel quite balanced enough. He had only really been using the gun, so he hadn't experienced any of the issues that the sword had.

At any rate, he wasn't focused enough on the fight enough, allowing Ruby to brutally slam the blunt end of her scythe directly into his abdomen, with her speed providing much more force than she would have otherwise, easily breaking a few ribs and knocking the wind right out of him.

He coughed up a small amount of blood, proving internal bleeding somewhere as well. With the broken ribs, moving was painful inside of his chest. And since one can't train their organs no matter how hard they try, he needed to stop fighting now or risk further injury.

He got up, and turned to Glynda, "I forfeit."

Ruby stopped as suddenly as she could, but failed to get her footing, causing her to both slide and tip over as she did, "Wait, you're giving up? Why?"

He looked down at her, smiling in a warm way, "Ah, you're too good, Ruby. You really got me good with that scythe of yours."

"The winner is Ruby Rose. Mr. Uzumaki, I recommend you patch yourself up," Goodwitch called out. Naruto nodded, and began to make his way to the locker room, with Ruby holding his arm over her shoulder for support, as she looked away.

"Sorry, Naruto. I didn't mean to-" she began to apologize, but Naruto held his hand up to stop her.

"It's fine, Ruby. I got careless. It's not your fault. Now, do you want to know the name I picked out?"

She looked at him with her usual wide puppy eyes, nodding furiously. "I called it 'Ichiraku.'"

She stared at him with confusion, "But isn't that the name of the ramen place back in your home?"

He laughed a little at his own little joke. "Yeah, it is. No, it's actually called 'Reppumeiyo.' In the language of my people, it meant Gale Prestige," He explained to the small girl, who was soaking it all up.

"Sorry, I just really like seeing new weapons," she apologized, but he shook his head.

"Don't worry about it, Ruby. I would if I spent my life growing up around such unique and interesting weapons all the time. Where I'm from, we mostly just have kunai and shuriken, with a few swords here and there, but nothing special."

She was looking over the weapon and its sheath, but had a pause while looking at them, "What do these symbols mean?" Naruto looked. They were the engravings he had requested on the sheath, made from a little 'drawing' he had left for them. The engravings were some kanji: 木ノ葉隠れの里.

"Oh, those? That's the written form of my native language. It means Konohagakure no Sato, or The Village Hidden in the Leaves."

"Woah… That's your home, right?" She asked, still looking over all the little details. "And I'm guessing the weird leaf on the blade was your village's emblem or something?"

"Yeah. It was," Naruto said, a little upset even now he had never actually found a way back home. By now, he was sure that either the Akatsuki had won without all the Bijū, or they had been beaten. That meant it was a fifty-fifty chance that everyone he had ever known or loved was dead and probably unburied.

* * *

"Wait, so how do you play this game?" Naruto asked, leaning over Blake's shoulder.

"You know, I was about to ask the same thing," Weiss said. Yang rolled her eyes at the both of them.

"We told you, Weiss, you're playing as the kingdom of-"

Ruby cut off her explanation, "Hmmmmm... All right... All right! Yang Xiao Long, prepare your kingdom for battle!"

Yang turned to face her sister, pumping her fist, "Bring it on!"

Ruby began… whatever it was she was doing, "I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" She slammed her card down on the table. Yang gained a look of shock. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!" She began to make airplane noises for some reason.

Yang, feigning indignance, pointed at Ruby, "You fiend!"

Ruby continued, "And since Atlas is part of Mantle, my repair time is only one turn."

Yang let out a slightly arrogant laugh, as she raised a card, "Pretty sneaky, sis, but you just activated my trap card! Giant Nevermore!" She slammed the card down on the table. "If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

Naruto leaned over to Weiss, "Do you have any idea what's going on?" She shook her head, blank look on her face.

Ruby pointed to Yang, "But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!"

Yang stared her down, "That's just a chance I'm willing to take."

"Nooooo! My fearless soldiers!"

"Eh, most of them were probably androids," Yang shrugged off her heartless slaughter.

"Goodbye my friends. You will be avenged!"

Yang definitely had an air of arrogance now, "Not until I draw my rewards! Which are double this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!"

Ruby was either getting angry or upset, "Bah!"

Yang, not letting up, held up another card, "Oh, and what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path?"

"Bah! Bah, I say!"

"Well, it looks like I'm taking two cards from your hand!" Yang sat triumphantly.

"Have you no heart?" Ruby said, as she collapsed onto the table, crying. "Nooo!"

Yang turned to Weiss, "Well, Weiss, it's your turn."

Weiss voiced her earlier question, "I have... absolutely no idea what's going on."

Naruto raised his hand, "Uh, yeah. Me neither."

Yang slid next to Weiss, rolling her eyes slightly, "Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus."

Weiss scoffed at her, "That sounds dumb."

Naruto, on the other hand, was nodding his head back and forth, soaking it all in.

Yang began to look through Weiss's cards, trying to help her beat the other three, including the buxom blonde, "See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh, oh!" She pulled up a card. "Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet-"

Ruby groaned. Naruto was scratching his head, wondering why it seemed like they had never played this game before now.

Yang continued, "And put it in your hand!"

Weiss tried to make it seem like she understood, "Ooookay."

Yang, not finished, continued to instruct Weiss on exactly how to beat them, "And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" Yang turned to the heiress darkly. "Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war." She slid back to her seat.

"And that means...?"

Ruby, still crying, spoke up, "You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!"

Weiss stood, and thunder sounded around the table, seemingly from nowhere, as Weiss laughed in an insane way, "Yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!"

Yang nonchalantly held up a card to Weiss, "Trap card."

Weiss stopped, "Huh?"

"Your armies have been destroyed," Yang said, as she shuffled a number of pieces around on the board

Weiss slouched in her chair, tearing up, "I hate this game of emotions we play."

Ruby hopped into her lap, "Stay strong, Weiss! We'll make it through this together!"

"Shut up! Don't touch me!" Weiss responded, though with no real conviction behind it, as she hugged Ruby.

Naruto leaned over to Blake now, "Are they always like this?" She didn't answer.

Yang put her arms behind her head, turning to the Faunus, "Alright Blake, you're up!"

Blake looked up, having apparently zoned out, "Oh, um, sorry, what am I doing?"

"You're playing as Vale, trying to conquer the Kingdoms of Remnant!"

"Right…"

"Hey! Can I play?" asked Jaune, as he approached from his own team's table.

Ruby, back on her own seat, looked at him apologetically, "Sorry Jaune, we've already got 4 people."

Weiss, ever the rude one, denied him further, "Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt that you possess."

Yang pointed something out, "Uhh, you attacked your own naval fleet 2 turns ago." Weiss groaned, annoyed.

Jaune challenged her, "Bring it on, Ice Queen! I'll have you know that I have been told that I am a natural born leader!"

"By who? Your mother?"

"A-and Pyrrha!" Jaune answered nervously.

Yang turned to Naruto, ignoring what was going on behind them, "So, Whiskers? Where's the rest of your team?"

Naruto shrugged, "Well, Troy went with Diana into Vale to get more baked goods, and I think Melissa said she was going to sit on top of Beacon Cliff and just shoot at some Grimm in the forest."

"Huh. Why didn't you go with one of them?" Yang asked.

Another shrug, "Well, I can't hit things from a big distance with a gun, and I'm not as obsessed with baked goods as Diana is. Besides, I'd be missing this… interesting scene if I did."

Meanwhile, Jaune was still trying to plead his case to Weiss, who said, "I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo."

"Why not? You've trusted me with way more important stuff before. I mean, you told us all that Blake is secretly a Fa-" he tried to say, as Pyrrha appeared next to him and slapped her hand over his mouth.

"A fun-loving person! Whom we all admire and respect!" she said, nervously staring at Blake.

Blake, and Naruto on her behalf, glared at Weiss, annoyed.

"Right. That. Ladies, enjoy your battle," Jaune said, as Pyrrha walked away. Naruto put his hand on Blake's shoulder, looking down at her sympathetically. He heard footsteps behind them.

A familiar voice said, "Sup, losers?" Sun came up next to Naruto and Blake, holding his hands in a 'peace' sign.

Ruby cheerily answered, "Hey Sun!"

Next to Sun, there was a blue haired boy, wearing a red jacket of some kind and goggles on his head. Sun continued, "Ruby, Yang, Blake, Naruto… Ice Queen."

Weiss raised her hands indignantly, "Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

Sun ignored her, gesturing to the new guy, "I never got a chance to formally introduce you to my old friend."

The old friend spoke for the first time, "Aren't libraries usually for reading?"

From the Team JNPR table, Ren threw up his arms, "THANK YOU!" Nora sat upright, saying something about pancakes.

Sun turned to his friend, "Shut up. Don't be a nerd."

The boy raised a finger, "Uh, uh, uh, uh! Intellectual, okay? Thank you." He waved to the table. "I'm Neptune."

Weiss, apparently interested, perked up, "So, Neptune, where are you from?"

"Haven," he said, as he slid in next to Weiss. "And I don't believe I caught your name, snow angel."

Weiss seemed a little flustered, "Um… I'm Weiss."

Jaune yelled in disbelief, "Are you kidding me?!"

Naruto laughed. Neptune bowed just slightly to Weiss, "Pleasure to meet you."

Sun turned to Blake, "I never took you for the board game playing type."

She stood up, pushing Sun and Naruto out of the way as she went, "Right, well, I think I'm done playing actually." She left the library.

Sun looked to Team RWBY for an explanation, while Naruto stared at the door, concern painted across his face. He followed after her, while Nora just shrugged over at her table. "Women," she called over.

* * *

Naruto caught up to Blake, as she traveled back down the hallways to her room. He put a hand on her shoulder as they walked, "Blake? What's wrong?"

She didn't look at him, but answered anyways, "It's… It's the White Fang. I don't get why they would be working with a human. _Especially_ a human like Torchwick. They may have changed since they've adopted this regime of terror, but they've always kept the belief that humans can't be trusted, and that they should all either be killed or locked away."

Naruto thought for a moment. "I mean, we could try asking about it…"

Blake stared at him, as though he had suggested they tried jumping off a cliff to learn to fly.

"Well, not actually ask them. But just think about it. We're both Faunus, so we could probably sneak into an operation or something."

"Maybe. But it seems too dangerous for just us," Blake countered. Naruto gave her another of his foxy grins.

"Not necessarily. And it doesn't have to be just us. I'm sure Sun would help, if you asked him."

"I don't think it would be a good idea, Naruto."

"Alright, fine. It was just an idea, nothing more," he said, raising his hands in defense.

They arrived at Team RWBY's dorm. Blake turned to him, and gave a simple goodbye before turning back around and entering the dorm. Naruto stood outside the door, frowning, for a little bit, before deciding to try again later.

* * *

Blake sat for a while on her bed, thinking back to the docks and the meeting with Ozpin afterwards. It unnerved her how the group infamous for hating humans was now working for/with one. It made next to no sense whatsoever. Adam was violently against humans to begin with, let alone human criminals.

For the White Fang to work for them… Well, Blake wasn't sure what it could mean. Naruto had been trying to get her to forget about it, but it just kept coming back to her. She had spent too long with the White Fang to just ignore such a sudden difference in their methods. She had seen that they were hoarding dust, but she didn't get what for.

She was ripped from her thoughts by the sound of a door opening with a conversation wafting through. "Ugh, we should have never let him play!" She heard Yang say. Ruby had a snarky response ready.

"You're just mad cause the new guy beat you! See, if you had just attacked when I told you none of this would have happened."

Seeing that she wouldn't be able to think with her teammates here, Blake made to leave. When she put her hand on the doorknob, she heard Weiss speak behind her.

"Stop." Blake pulled her hand away for the doorknob, turning to see Weiss pointing at her. "Lately you've been quiet, antisocial and moody! In fact, I think the only person you've really been talking to is Naruto!"

Yang cut in, "Uh, have you met Blake?"

Weiss rolled her eyes, "Which I get is kind of your thing, but you've been doing it more than usual! Which quite frankly, is unacceptable! You made a promise to me, to all of us, that you would let us know if something was wrong!" She dramatically flipped through the air, somehow grabbing a chair as she went and balancing herself on it. "So, Blake Belladonna, what is wrong!?" She dramatically pointed at Blake again. About to lose her balance, she quickly returned the seat to its place and moved back over to her teammate.

Blake hesitated, "I just… I don't understand how everyone can be so calm! The only person showing any concern about it is Naruto!"

Ruby came up with a small frown on her face, "You're still thinking about Torchwick?"

"Torchwick, the White Fang, all of it! Something big is happening and no one is doing anything about it!"

"Ozpin told us not to worry," Yang tried to reason. "Between the police and the Huntsmen, I'm sure they can handle it."

"Well I'm not! They don't know the White Fang like I do!" Blake snapped.

"Okay, between blowing up nightclubs, stopping thieves, and fighting for freedom," Weiss argued. "I'm sure the three of you think that you're all ready to go out and apprehend these ne'er-do-wells!"

Ruby cocked her head, "Uh, who?"

Weiss continued, "But let me once again be the voice of reason. We're students! We're not ready to handle this sort of situation!"

"Well yeah, but..." Ruby tried to defend.

Weiss insisted, "We're not ready!"

"And we may never be ready! Our enemies aren't just going to sit around and wait for graduation day!" Blake yelled irritably, pointing toward the door. "They're out there, somewhere, planning their next move, and none of us know what it is, but it's coming! Whether we're ready or not!"

Ruby began to make random gestures as she tried to convince her team, "Okay, all in favor of becoming the youngest Huntresses to single-handedly taking down a corrupt organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale... say aye."

Yang pumped her fist into the air enthusiastically, "Yes! I love it when you're feisty!"

Weiss shrugged, "Well, I suppose it could be fun." Somehow, she was convinced.

Ruby looked a little upset, "None of you said aye…"

She was ignored. "Alright then, we're in this together," Blake said.

Ruby perked back up, "Let's hatch a plan!"

"YEAH!" Yang cheered. Suddenly, Ruby gasped in horror.

"I left my board game at the library!"

Weiss put her hand to her head, "We're doomed…"

Ruby sped out the door, slamming into someone as she went. She looked up to see a girl with green hair and a guy with black hair standing over her. "Sorry. Are you ok?" She offered. The green haired girl gave Ruby a hand to help her to her feet.

"I'm fine. Just watch where you're going," said the girl.

"Oh, right, sorry," Ruby apologized again. "Um, I'm Ruby! Are you new?"

A woman came up behind them, "Visiting from Haven, actually." The green haired girl turned to face her. To Ruby, something about her seemed incredibly familiar, but she couldn't place her finger on it. She shrugged off the feeling.

"Ooh! You're here for the festival! But exchange students have their own dormitory…"

"I guess we just got turned around," spoke the boy with black hair. Ruby waved off his 'concern.'

"Hey, don't worry, it happens all the time." The green haired girl and black haired boy walked past her. "Uh, your building is just east of here." She pointed for emphasis.

Cinder responded politely, "Thanks." She walked past the pest from the robbery, waving in acknowledgement. "Maybe we'll see you around."

Ruby called out to them, "Yeah, maybe! Oh, uh, and welcome to Beacon!"

As they walked away, Cinder grinned evilly, knowing that she would be able to lay low here until the plan came to fruition. But then, she paused, feeling some kind of presence. Something she felt the Maiden's power respond to. Something… _wrong._ Like the Maiden's power, but different. Warped.

As she continued to walk, she passed by an open dorm room. Looking into it as she passed, she smirked once again. Sitting on a bed, meditating, was the Faunus boy she had sent Roman after. It seemed like her plans were becoming easier and easier every second.

* * *

The next day, after another of Professor Port's 'classes,' Team RWBY found themselves in their dorm, preparing for the impending investigation. Each of them had donned different clothing then normal, for reasons unknown.

Ruby's outfit consisted of a long-sleeve, light gray shirt with black belted cuffs near the ends of the sleeves. Over top of the gray shirt is a black pinafore with two vertical lines of red stitching that resemble the lacing on a corset. She wore a red skirt with a large print of a rose on the side of it in black and black tulle underneath. Her stockings and shoes were the same as her normal outfit, except the boots no longer had a red trim around the top, and her hooded cloak has been wrapped around her neck similar to a scarf before hanging down her back.

Weiss's outfit was a white, double breasted jacket with black piping, cuffs and buttons over a white, pleated full skirt with black lace trim. She also wore a pair of white, thigh high boots with black heels and lace-topped black stockings.

Blake wore a simple white, V-neck, zip-up crop shirt with a black hem and three quarter sleeves. She also wore black pants that have a vertical gray stripe on the outer side of each leg and a black belt, and black high-heel boots with two straps and buckles and purple undersoles, reaching to mid-calf.

Yang's was of a deep-collared cream vest over a low cut black shirt and covered by a dark gray shrug with a raised collar, three quarter sleeves with a single black stripe down the outside of each sleeve, and gold cuffs. A black miniskirt was being worn under the cream vest. She wore thigh high stockings attached to her miniskirt by garter-belts on the front and back of each thigh. She also wore black ankle boots with multiple buckles and white ribbons on the back tied in a bow.

Blake complained about Port, "I thought that class would never end."

Ruby, sat up on her bed, tried to be optimistic, "Alright, guys, today's the day! The investigation begins!"

As she cheerily hopped down to the floor, she nearly landed on Weiss, who was sat on her own bunk beneath Ruby.

Weiss said sarcastically, "I'm glad to see we're taking this so seriously."

"Hey, we've got a plan! That's... moderately serious," Yang defended.

Ruby looked at her teammates, "Right! Everyone remember their roles?"

Weiss, standing up, explained her role to the people who already knew it, "You and I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem."

Blake followed suit, "The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning.

"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard..." Yang said, pausing for a moment. "Hey, Blake, why not get your boyfriend's help?"

Blake blushed, as she tried to deny it, "Yang! Naruto's not my boyfriend! He is a normal friend!"

Yang shrugged, "Well, why not get his help anyways? He seems like he wants to…"

Ruby ignored the both of them, "Great! We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we found." She pumped her fist. "Let's do this!"

All of them jumped when a voice sounded from outside the window, "Yeah!" They all looked at the window, stepping back.

"Sun!" Blake yelled. The monkey Faunus was hanging on a tree branch just outside their window.

Yang seemed more curious than concerned as she asked, "How did you even get up there?"

"Ah, it's easy. I do it all the time," Sun waved off the question.

"You do what?!" Weiss asked indignantly.

Sun didn't really defend himself as he answered, "I climb trees all the time!" Without reacting to Weiss's scowl, he flipped into the dorm. "So, are we finally getting back at that Torchwick guy?"

Blake tried to shoot him down, stepping forward, "We are going to investigate the situation... as a team."

Ruby apologized, as she seemed to do a lot, "Sorry, Sun. We don't want to get friends involved if we don't have to."

Sun scoffed, but in a humored way, "Psh! That's dumb! We should always get friends involved! That's why I brought Neptune!" He gestured out the window. Team RWBY leaned out to see the blue haired boy standing outside, on the really high ledge.

"Sup?" he asked, seemingly unaware of his incredible height.

Ruby asked incredulously, "How did you even get up here?"

"I have my ways," He tried to say mysteriously. He continued nervously, as he looked down. "Seriously, though, can I come in? We're like, really high up right now."

Once he had come inside, Ruby began to add the two new arrivals to groups "Alright, I'll go with Weiss. Sun, you can go with Blake. And Neptune, you can go with Yang since she doesn't have a partner. Everyone good?"

Weiss, not very subtly trying to pair up with Neptune, suggested something else, "Actually, Ruby, why don't you go with Yang? After all, she is your sister."

Ruby pushed Neptune, who is stiff as a board, up next to Yang. When she is done pushing him, he rocked back and forth a tad, looking nervous. Yang put her hand on his shoulder to stop him from rocking.

Ruby turned to her partner, "But, Weiss, who would go with you, then?"

Weiss, continuing to be very much not subtle, answered bluntly, "Well... I guess Neptune could come with me."

Ruby looked back and forth between her partner and the blue haired teammate of Sun's, before cracking up, "Hahaha, nah!" She began to push Weiss out the door, despite the latter's protests.

"Well, that's that then!" Yang said. "Let's go!"

Blake nodded, and the four of them left the dorm. As they did, none of them noticed Naruto as he walked out of his dorm room. "Hm…" He said to himself. Six people, four from Team RWBY and two from Sun's team, had left Team RWBY's dorm, all either in pairs or in groups.

"What are you guys up to…?" Knowing how bothered Blake had been about the whole thing with the White Fang, Naruto decided to discreetly follow them. In fact…

He darted back into his room for a moment. In the next moment, a different boy emerged. He would look suspiciously familiar to anyone from Konoha, but since no one here had ever met Sasuke, it was a good cover. Just in case, he made sure to have a snake's tail coming out the back.

Once he had transformed, Naruto began to follow the group of six, mostly focusing on helping out Blake.

* * *

 **And I end it there!**

 **So, I'm not gonna lie, I just took those descriptions of Team RWBY's alternate outfits straight from the RWBY Wiki. I'm lazy, sue me.**

 **I think I'm going to start the omakes next chapter. I've gotten one great idea from a fan already, so look forward to that! Also, if you have any ideas that you'd like to see, let me know! I can't promise I'll do them well, but I can promise I'll do them.**

 **You know, I'm a little surprised that I haven't fallen into writer's block with this story yet. With both of my others, the chapters were so boring to write, and I just could not make myself sit down and write long chapters. But not with this one...**

 **And, really quickly, I need to respond to a few guest reviews.**

 **Ugh: You bring up a good point, but I wasn't finished with those guys yet. And yes, I agree, many of the actions people take in stories would have far-reaching results like that. I don't know that it's naivete; I think it's just authors not focusing on things other than what they intend to write about.**

 **DNCK: Besides the obvious reason, you very clearly don't know me. You seem to think I would pick a pairing based off of peer pressure. If that were the case, I would've made a poll for it. Also, how is it cliché in any way? Cliché would be something like Ruby, or maybe Yang.**

 **Well, that's it for guest reviews.**

 **Until Chapter 7!**


	7. Chapter 7: The Investigation

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I own RWBY. If I did, I would be one step closer to world domination.**

* * *

Chapter 7: The Investigation!

For someone who spent all of his time gallivanting about wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, Naruto could be remarkably stealthy went he wanted to be. Such was how he had managed to follow the now group of four as they left Beacon's grounds, boarding an airship that would take them into Vale.

Of course, it only helped that Naruto had a transformation up the entire time. He hadn't ever bothered describing his old friends, and on top of that, he doubted any of his new friends would suspect someone from his old life would show up here of all places. It was a good cover, and would allow him to tail the group for a while.

On the airship, Naruto sat across from the four of them, sitting in Sasuke's traditional manner, with his hands crossed over his mouth. He felt cocky just sitting like the teme, let alone actually disguised as him. Either way, he apparently was being suspicious, since after just a little, Yang looked over at him, turned back to Blake, and said something, before Blake looked towards him while Yang glared.

Passing it off as unjustified suspicion, Naruto nodded his head in acknowledgement, before turning his gaze to the floor. Great. Now he'd have to follow them either in a different disguise, or without them detecting him. That said, he had managed to steal the most preciously guarded scroll in his entire village when he was 12, so…

The airship arrived at Vale shortly afterwards. Yang and Neptune took off on a motorcycle that Yang got from somewhere, while Blake pointed in a seemingly random direction, before Sun nodded, and both of them started towards the direction she had pointed. Naruto began to follow, before glancing around briefly, and, not seeing anyone nearby, leapt up onto a roof. It would be much easier to follow them from up here.

Blake and Sun walked a good ways across the city, eventually reaching the run-down part that held a number of warehouses Naruto followed them the entire way, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. There was one close call, in which Blake turned around, looking about wildly, hand on her katana. Naruto decided to follow along a bit further back after that.

Eventually, the two Faunus turned into an alley, disappearing from view for a moment. Naruto jumped to the roof above them, only to see an open doorway with some kind of guard outside of it. He looked to be an older man, on account of his gray hair. Naruto could smell the scent of some kind of animal on him, but not one he was familiar with.

"You stole my idea, you little copycat…" Naruto muttered to himself. Looking around the street Blake and Sun had come from, he dropped down onto street level, making sure his temporary snake tail was showing as he walked up to the guard. He was handed some kind of mask, and sent inside. He put the mask on, walking down the hallway to find a room filled with Faunus, all wearing the same mask as he, and a large portion wearing White Fang armor.

"Oh, dear, Blake. What have you brought me to?" He asked himself, under his breath. There was a clear section for people wandering in off the street, so Naruto made sure to place himself at the back of it, for ease of escape.

" **Be careful. Remember, you don't know the purpose of this meeting. Make sure to say transformed."**

' _You're not helping. Thanks anyways.'_

" **I'll give you some of my chakra to sustain the transformation, if you want…"**

' _Nah. I'll keep it up. You don't need to waste your chakra on something like this.'_

" **I'm going to laugh when you mess this up. You know that, right?"**

' _I need to ask you not to.'_

" **Why are you here, anyways?"**

' _I thought you could read my mind?'_

" **Truth be told, you're actually just very predictable. You think I can read your thoughts through this cage?"**

' _Yeah, I did. Sly fox.'_

" **Quite. Now, focus on the task at hand, and find out what the catty vixen is up to."**

' _Catty vixen?'_

" **FOCUS!"**

* * *

Meanwhile, across the city, there were two other students spending time in Vale. Not, as one might suspect, Yang and Neptune. No, instead, Diana and Troy left the bakery they had been visiting that day, after Diana had eaten everything she bought the day before in about an hour.

As they left the bakery, Diana was happily chewing on an entire loaf of bread, just come out of the oven. Troy looked amused, as if he found Diana's obsession with baked goods funny. As the door shut, they were passed by a blonde girl and a blue haired guy on a yellow motorcycle.

"Was that Yang? Who was the other person?" Troy asked, as if Diana would know. As expected, she shrugged, not even bothering to stop eating long enough to answer. Troy looked down the street, in the direction that the two had gone, speeding down the street. They were headed towards a somewhat shady part of town.

"We should follow them, and find out what they're doing. I'm sure they'd appreciate help, right?" Troy queried his partner, turning to face her. She cheerily nodded.

"Yep!" Troy looked back down the street, as he and Diana began to walk to where they had seen Yang go. As it turned out, two people on foot were slower than two people on a motorcycle. Right about now, Troy was kind of jealous of Naruto and Ruby. Their semblance would be very helpful right about now. He could use his own, theoretically, but using like that would leave him drained. So instead, he and Diana continued walking, finding Yang's motorcycle outside of a nightclub, the same one she had told them about in her one story. It looked to be slightly rundown from the outside. As if the owner couldn't pay for upkeep.

Yang angrily burst out of the building, Neptune following her closely. She paused when she saw the rainbow girl and Troy stood by her bike. "What are you two doing here?" she asked them. Troy raised his eyebrow.

"You know, we followed you to ask the same thing," he explained. "Diana and I were buying some more bread and other things. What about you two?"

Yang just shrugged, "Meeting an old friend. Nothing big."

"Yang, this is the club where you grabbed a man's dick. Don't lie to us," Troy saw through her lie with incredible ease. It wasn't even slightly believable. She had probably said the first thing that came to mind.

She groaned, "Ugh, fine. We were-"

She cut off by her scroll ringing, "Blake? Why is she calling me?"

* * *

Following a day following Weiss, meeting up with Penny, running from soldiers, _then_ finding out Penny was a robot… Ruby felt tired. Not tired as in she wanted to sleep. Tired as in she didn't think anything else exciting could possibly happen.

First, that day, she had gone with Weiss to the CCT, to get a number of files detailing Dust robberies. She had just wanted to take a picture of the tower, but in the process, she had dropped her scroll. Well, it was actually more of a throw. And then, it had landed near the feet of an unsuspecting girl, who picked it up upon feeling it impacting her foot.

Turning to face the direction it had come from, the girl had revealed herself as Penny, whom none of them had seen since the docks. She seemed as surprised to see them as they were to see her, but tried to leave before they could get into a conversation, nervously repeating that she wasn't who they thought she was.

Ruby had left Weiss behind to get the files, following Penny to see what was wrong. As it turned out, her father hadn't wanted her to wander around quite so much. She said it was because he worried about her, because he loved her very much.

However, Penny had apparently been told not to talk to those she didn't know, for some reason. As they talked, they were walking past a presentation of the new androids of the Atlesian Military, a presentation that had drawn Ruby's attention. The general had gone on to describe how many situations required a 'human touch.'

This had led him into presenting the new Atlesian Paladin, a giant mech that seemed like it had weapons mounted to every surface on it. Admittedly, Ruby had been a little entranced when she had seen it. It also seemed to be heavily armored, meaning whoever was inside of it would be very well protected. It was a thing of beauty.

But, unfortunately, two soldiers spotted them, or, to be more accurate, had spotted Penny, and began to chase after them. Ruby didn't get why, but she and Penny began to run away. As they fled, Ruby used her speed, holding onto Penny, to launch off a wall, all the way down an alley. But, due to trying to carry a strangely heavy girl, she had lost control, dropping Penny and rolling, dazed, into the middle of the street. Right in front of a large truck.

Penny jumped in, arms outstretched, and stopped the truck with her bare hands, creating a small crater behind her feet from the force delivered into the street from her through the truck. A crowd had gathered, staring, as Penny grew more nervous, grabbing Ruby as they retreated back into an alley.

There, Penny explained how she was a synthetic human capable of generating an Aura, the first of her kind. She seemed down about it, saying she wasn't real. Ruby had examined her hands, before closing them around the now exposed metal underneath. She told Penny that she _was_ real, that she could feel Penny's soul.

Afterwards, Penny had thanked her, hiding her in a dumpster for some reason as she went back with the soldiers. Ruby had smiled, before hearing a squeak and looking down to see mice in the dumpster. She had fallen backwards briefly, before climbing out of the dumpster and standing around for several minutes, until it was dark. After a while, she got a call from Blake, though she didn't know why.

* * *

"Hello. Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?" chimed the AI's voice from the wall.

Weiss tried to be as pleasant as possible while she was speaking, "I'd like to go to the communications room, please."

The AI was quick to respond, "Absolutely. Could you please place your scroll on the terminal to verify your identity?" Weiss place her scroll as directed. A few beeps sounded, before the AI spoke again, "Perfect! Thank you, Miss Schnee!"

As the elevator continued to climb the tower, Weiss tried to make herself cheerful, or at least polite looking. The elevator doors opened, and Weiss walked up to the front desk where a holographic secretary appeared in the seat.

The same voice from the elevator sounded, "Welcome to the Beacon Cross Continental Transmit center. How may I help you?"

"I need to make a call to Schnee Company World Headquarters in Atlas."

"Absolutely," said the AI. "If you could head over to Terminal 3, I'll patch you through."

Weiss answered cordially, "Thank you."

She smiled, before walking over to her assigned computer, passing a few Beacon students she barely recognized. She sat at her own display, taking a deep, unsure, nervous breath to prepare for the call ahead. The face of a short-haired brunette appeared on the monitor.

The operator began the usual greeting, "Thank you for calling the Atlas-" She looked up, jumping a little when she recognized who she was talking to. "Oh! Miss Schnee! Good afternoon! Would you like me to patch you through to your father? I think your sister, Winter, might be here as well."

Weiss rather wished to avoid talking with her father and sister, and answered accordingly, "No, thank you! I was actually wondering if you could find some files for me. I've compiled a short list."

Weiss reached into her pocket, pulling out her scroll, and placed it into a slot on the keyboard, allowing the operator to look at the data from her side of the screen.

She spoke nervously, "I see… If you don't mind, what may I ask is this for?"

"School project," Weiss lied. The operator still seemed unsure.

"Uh… There are some sensitive documents on this list, ma'am."

Weiss spoke with her fake pleasant tone, "Well, then, I'll be sure to treat them with care."

The operator didn't seem convinced but relented, "Right... Very well. The data is being transferred to your scroll now."

"Wonderful! That will be all, then." Having what she had come for, Weiss wanted to end the conversation now.

The operator didn't let her go so easily, "Are you sure you wouldn't like me to patch you through to your father before you go?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Weiss said firmly.

The operator didn't quite frown as she said, "Well, then... Have a nice day!"

Weiss sat back in her chair, experiencing something like regret. After a while, she stood up and walked back over to the elevator. Once she reached the bottom, she got a call from Blake, who had the role that could go wrong in the most ways. Weiss sighed, as she looked down to answer the call.

* * *

" **I sense a familiar presence… Though I'm unsure who it is. Be on your guard."**

' _Got it.'_

Naruto scanned the room, still waiting for the new arrivals to stop filling in the room. Eventually, they did, and all of the attention turned to the now spotlight lit stage. A man walked out onto it, eliciting quite a reaction from the room. It wasn't unexpected, at least not from the recruits, since the man was Roman Torchwick, a human.

"Thank you, thank you!" He called out mockingly. "Please, hold your applause!"

A deer Faunus yelled out, "What's a human doing here?!"

Roman pointed to her in answering, "I'm glad you asked, Deer-y! Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans... are the worst. Case in point. So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or, better yet, killed!

But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy: the ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty, rotten humans that run our kingdoms! Government, military, even the schools: they're all to blame for your lot in life! And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around... No offense to any rodents in the room."

He snapped his fingers, and the curtain fell away, revealing… something. It looked like a giant robot of some kind, though Naruto had never seen anything like it before.

"As some of you may have heard, this right here...is Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my employer, we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, hit the shelves. Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine... But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?" he asked, looking around the crowd. None were asked, and a tall White Fang member stepped forward.

"Will all new recruits please come forward?" Naruto didn't move, keeping his eye on Blake and Sun, who also stood still. Making a quick decision, he backed out of the room, dropping the transformation once he was out of sight. If what he expected would happen happened…

As he took his place back at the back of the room, he noticed Torchwick was glaring at Blake and Sun. He made his way towards them, throwing his cigar on the ground and growling as he went. Naruto's eyes widened, and he moved forwards with the crowd, trying to get to his friends. Before he made it very far, Blake pulled out her gun and shot once, hitting the fuse box. Naruto held in a chuckle, somewhat impressed by her creativity. After all, Torchwick couldn't see in the dark.

Naruto could, however, and he used this ability to maneuver through the crowd of confused Faunus, getting to Blake and Sun as they jumped out of a window. "Hey, guys!" He called over to them. They both looked at him, bewildered by his sudden appearance.

"Naruto?! What are you doing here?!" Blake yelled in question. Sun still stared the same as before. Naruto flashed them his signature grin. The robot from inside burst through the wall of the warehouse behind them.

"Well, right now it looks like I'm running from a giant robot!" He yelled back, as they all jumped from roof to roof, evading the mech as best they could. He felt like Blake probably rolled her eyes, though Naruto couldn't tell. He was more focused on fleeing from the giant robot he could probably fight.

Sun began to ask something, amidst a number of flips, "So you wouldn't happen to have," A back flip. "Oh, I don't know," Another flip. "Some form of backup?"

"ON IT!" Blake yelled back, pulling out a scroll. Naruto looked behind them, seeing the robot fast approaching. He turned to his friends.

"I'll hold him off! Just go!" Naruto stopped, ignoring Blake telling him not to, and started right for the robot.

* * *

All of Weiss, Yang, Ruby, Diana, and Troy could hear wind rushing past the other end of the microphone, signifying Blake was moving very quickly. Which, as expected, meant she was running from someone.

"Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back-"

Sun cut her off in the background, "HEEEELLLLP! Big robot! And it's big! Really big!"

Ruby said to herself, "Oh, I am not missing this!" She ran off to find them.

Sun continued, "That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him. He's, like, controlling it or something! And Naruto is trying to hold him off, but he keeps chasing us!"

Yang, with Diana, Neptune, and Troy next to her, yelled into the scroll, "Where are you guys?"

Behind them, they heard large footsteps, before they each turned to see Sun and Blake running across the street, with a large mech chasing them, and Naruto riding the huge mech. Sun yelled out, "HURRYYYY!"

Neptune, hearing his friend's voice, looked to Yang, "I think that was them…"

She grunted, "Yeah, I got it!" she shoved the scroll away, ending her end of the call. She turned to Troy and Diana. "You guys got a way to catch up?" Troy nodded, glad he didn't waste his energy earlier.

"You two go on ahead. Diana and I will have to catch up with you," he said solemnly. Not wasting time, Yang spun her motorcycle around, speeding off down the street. Troy turned to Diana. "Grab my shoulder, Diana." She did, and a moment later, he and Diana disappeared.

Torchwick found he was being tailed by a number of people. He had chased the Faunus all the way to the freeway, even with the one Cinder was interested in scrambling all over his mech. Behind him, he saw two people approaching on a motorcycle and two people jumping around on cars. In front of him, the Faunus were doing the same. And the blond Faunus was still clambering all over the Paladin.

Torchwick growled in annoyance. One Faunus he could deal with. Two? Easy. Three? Still manageable, with the mech. This entire team? That was pushing his buttons just a little too much. Trying to shake the people behind him off his tail, he glanced at the traffic they were swerving through carefully, before intentionally kicking up a storm of automobiles, sending them flying at the four students behind him.

To his ever-growing annoyance, the motorcycle made it through unharmed. A second later, one of the other two appeared from the cloud of cars. It was the rainbow one. He groaned, looking up to the sky as if to ask, ' _Why me_?' before returning his attention to crushing the Faunus in front of him, as well as the blond climbing over his mech, doing god-knows-what.

Nothing he was doing appeared to faze the Faunus, as he just kept climbing, like he was looking for something specific.

Finding a good place for the only one he brought with him from home, Naruto placed an explosive tag on the thinnest part of the mech that connected the legs to the torso. It wasn't actually the thinnest part of the robot, just in the section between the arms and legs. He leapt off, but as he went, the mech turned and struck him with a backhand, forcing him to land precariously on the front of Yang's motorcycle. He turned to her, yelling at the top of his lungs so she could hear him, "GET AWAY FROM TORCHWICK! I SET A BOMB!"

Her eyes widened, and she drastically slowed down, as Naruto turned back to the mech in front of them. He made a familiar handsign, something that just looked like a pose to Yang, and a huge explosion rocked the bridge with its force. But unbelievably, the mech emerged from it almost entirely unharmed, the most damage being a scorch mark around the middle. Naruto's mouth dropped open.

Sun and Blake, up ahead, ceased their car-hopping, looking back at the smoking mech. Neptune, behind Naruto, yelled for him to get down. Naruto hopped to a different vehicle, as Neptune fired what appeared to be bolts of lightning at the robot, which did little more than annoy the man inside of it.

Seeing he was getting nowhere, Neptune leapt forwards, landing on the mech and stabbing into it with his weapon, now transformed into some kind of halberd-trident cross. The mech, still unaffected, began violently shaking about, as Torchwick tried to launch the boy off of it. Seeing the trouble his teammate was in, Sun called out to him, before putting his hands together in a prayer motion. A moment later, two golden copies of him rushed forwards, exploding into light upon impacting the mech.

Sun tried to take the opportunity to rush forward and attack the mech, but Torchwick swung far around, sending Neptune flying into Sun. Before they fell off the bridge, Naruto leapt up, grabbing them by their shirts and keeping them from falling off. However, given that he had had to leap towards the edge of the bridge, all three of them ended up falling. Knowing that the other two would be fine, Naruto dropped them, letting them land on their own as he jumped from column to column, climbing back up.

When he reached the top, he found that the mech was much further down the road, a mile at least, approaching a girl in white. Naruto sent a good amount of chakra to his legs, kneeling slightly as he put his hands on the ground in front of him, ready to run. In a flash, he took off down the road, blazing past Yang, and impacting the back of the mech in an instant. He didn't do much, but at least he felt like he contributed.

The girl in white, obviously Weiss, stabbed her rapier into the ground, creating a large field of ice. As Torchwick spotted it, the smirk he had dropped, and he tried to stop, to slow down, to do anything to avoid it, but in the end, he was sent over the edge in a ridiculous display of a raining chunk of metal.

* * *

As Melissa sat in her team's dorm, back a Beacon Academy, she looked up suddenly from her magazine, with an overwhelming feeling of being left out.

"Hm," She shrugged. "Meh."

* * *

The mech fell, impacting the ground beneath the freeway with a large crash. Up above, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Diana, and Naruto looked down at it, as it still appeared to be unfazed, even by so far a drop. Ruby was stood opposite it, scythe held at the ready. Yang and Weiss jumped down, followed swiftly by Diana, who never liked missing a fight. Or, well, Naruto didn't _think_ she liked to miss fights. It was hard to tell with her.

Blake gave Naruto a look of question, and followed suit. Naruto shrugged, and dropped down, landing next to Team RWBY and his teammate. He looked over at Diana, who was giddy with excitement, and grinned at her, ready for the fight at hand. Maybe an explosive tag couldn't work, but a Rasengan probably could.

But from nowhere, a girl with two different hair colors, two different eye colors, and an umbrella came down and landed on top of the mech. She sat cross-legged on top of it, umbrella draped over her shoulder, smirking at them. Naruto looked up in annoyance, groaning as he did. Why did bad guys always get reinforcements? And where were Sun and Neptune?

Falling off of a freeway can be annoying. Very annoying, especially when you're in a giant mech suit. Torchwick, right now, was not very happy. At least Neo had shown up when he asked. That was a plus, against six other people. Besides, if needed, she would be great for a getaway.

Naruto set his hand in front of him, trying, for the second time in three days, to make a Rasengan with only one hand. The last time, he had only tried a little bit of chakra, though he had said it was Aura. This time, he tried it with his normal amount. It took an incredible amount of focus, but he managed to create the blue sphere in his hand, with Team RWBY and Diana staring at him in amazement, and giving Torchwick pause.

But, as it always had, the one-handed Rasengan failed him, exploding the ground beneath it into a small crater, damaging his hand as it went. He hadn't tried something like that since he had met Baa-chan, but he was hopeful he would at least be able to hold onto it for long enough to use it one the robot.

"Gah!" He grunted in pain. Neo was smirking again, and Torchwick was getting his weapons ready. Ruby turned to her team.

"Freezer Burn!" she called out. Seeing her and Blake jump back, Naruto and Diana followed suit, as Weiss created another field of ice, while Yang jumped up, coming down with a shot from her gauntlets, creating a huge cloud of mist.

' _Oh, boy. This brings back memories of the Land of Waves, eh Kyūbi?'_

" **You idiot, keep yourself focused on the battle at hand!"**

Naruto saw several red lasers perforating the mist, as Team RWBY sprinted about, confusing the mech. However, the girl was no longer sat on top of it. She wasn't by its feet either, meaning she had to be hidden in the mist somewhere.

' _Kyūbi?'_

" **I know… About thirty feet to your right, coming right at you."**

Naruto ducked, and the girl flew right over him, missing her strike entirely. Both of them stood back up to full height, which, for the girl, wasn't saying much. She was incredibly short. Like, not even five feet tall. And on top of that, she was wearing heels, meaning she was even shorter than she appeared.

She smirked at Naruto again, like she was asking him to attack. He raised an eyebrow. Part of being a shinobi is seeing through deception, and her smirk just spelled out 'trap.'

" **Ignore the one in front of you. It's an illusion."**

' _Like a genjutsu? I though they didn't have those here?'_

" **They don't. Likely, this is her 'Semblance,' as these people call it. Turn to your left. That's where the real one is."**

Naruto complied, and he heard the sound of glass shattering next to him, as the girl appeared, no longer smirking. It seemed she was a little scared of the fact that he had seen through her illusion. She readied her umbrella, which Naruto assumed was her weapon.

" **I get the feeling she focuses on avoiding hits first, dealing hits second. Careful, Kit. This one could be annoying."**

' _You're very helpful, for someone who is as new to this world as I am.'_

" **It's because I'm actually intelligent."**

Ignoring the fox, Naruto and the petite girl began circling each other, keeping their eyes locked the entire time. If she fought the way the fox said, then Naruto would have to use his speed to beat her. He drew his sword, keeping it at the ready in chokutō form. She sounded like the way most shinobi fought, especially considering the not-genjutsu ability of hers. Trickery and deception, that seemed to be her style.

Apparently, patience was not part of that, as she and Naruto both rush at each other simultaneously, chokutō meeting umbrella, sending out small sparks. She tried to sweep his feet out from under him, but he flipped over her, keeping his blade locked against her parasol the entire way. He jumped back, switching over to his gun, and beginning to move around her in a circle.

He fired bullet after bullet as he went, but from what he could tell, she was blocking them all with ease. She really was very good. He upped his speed a little, and began moving more erratically, jumping over her, sliding next to her, and generally being a nuisance. He could tell she was having more difficulty blocking his shots. He thought he saw one or two get through, but they might have just missed.

She began to attack in between his bullets, swiping at him with her parasol. She almost hit him once or twice, which meant she had almost as fast reactions as Ruby did. Seeing no other, better choice, Naruto sent enough chakra to his legs to maximize his speed, and he took off at easily over two hundred miles an hour. And yet, only a few of his bullets got through. Deciding to live up to his old nickname, Naruto began to attack randomly, unpredictably.

One moment, he would be swiping at her with his chokutō, and the next he might be a hundred feet above her, firing down upon her. But, before he managed to start doing real damage, he felt his legs start to give out under the pressure, like whenever Bushy-Brows opened the Gates. He was forced to slow down, or risk incredible amounts of fatigue and pain later on. Bringing it back down to a normal running speed, he saw another smirk on her face, as she began to attack at him more regularly, given that she could see him.

Since he didn't have an Aura to defend himself, he needed to avoid as many hits as he could, since one good shot with a blade could potentially finish him. Of course, it would need to be something serious, like a decapitation, but it was still better not to take chances.

So, he changed tactics once more, adopting her supposed strategy of dodging rather than attacking. But the game of cat-and-mouse was getting them nowhere fast, and Naruto was starting to become a little annoyed. He needed to finish this soon. They had been fighting for long enough that the cloud of mist had long since dissipated, and he was worried about his friends.

" **She's launched another illusion. Jump… NOW!"**

Naruto jumped, as the fox told him to, and heard more glass shatter as the girl in front of him broke to pieces, replaced by the girl behind him. He had hopped onto her umbrella, driving it down with his weight. She was forced to let go of it, avoiding a swing of his chokutō.

" **This is a little ridiculous. She should not be this much of an issue for you."**

' _I know, but between trying to out-speed her before, and when the robot smacked me earlier, I'm a little tired.'_

" **All I hear is excuses, brat."**

Naruto continued his attack on the petite girl with his one-handed chokutō, creating a small Rasengan in his other hand. He could at least keep this much chakra stable.

" **I wouldn't recommend that. Remember the brat from before? His Aura struck out at you through that technique, causing you harm. If you use it here, the same will happen."**

' _I know, but I don't have much choice at the moment. This is going nowhere, and if I don't finish it soon, she will.'_

The girl's eyes widened at the sight of the blue ball, but she still smirked at him, probably thinking it would explode again. But, as she was dodging a swipe of his chokutō, he thrust the orb right into her abdomen, but angled it upwards, sending her into the air. She kept her composure, and before Naruto could follow up on his hit, she was back down on the ground, having maneuvered down a concrete pillar.

He shook his hand about, as if to throw the pain off of his hand. The girl grinned at him, like she knew what her Aura had done. And considering how skillful she clearly was, she might have. Naruto could tell, though, that he had done some damage to her with his attack.

" **She's created another illusion. Kit, keep an eye on her weapon. That may be her target."**

Naruto turned, only to see her weapon was already gone. He ducked on instinct, as yet more glass fell to pieces, and the tiny girl appeared before him, swinging her parasol over him. He took a page from her book, and swept his foot under hers, knocking her off balance for a moment. He swung back around with his blade, only to be blocked yet again by her umbrella.

This was actually infuriating. Neither of them could land a decisive blow on the other, either due to speed, Aura, or both. Naruto could already tell: this fight would last a while. But he wasn't just worried about this fight. He knew his friends were fighting Torchwick behind him. He had no idea how they were doing, but he hoped it was better than he was.

He didn't have much time to think, due to the girl, whom Naruto decided he needed a nickname for, pulling a blade from the end of her umbrella, and beginning to use the two weapons in tandem. Naruto sighed, jumping back and pulling a kunai from his pouch. The multi-color girl rushed at him, but he blocked both of her strikes with his weapons.

If their fight was graceful before, then there weren't many words that describe it now. Perhaps something like elegant. It took on the appearance of a well-choreographed dance, not a battle potentially to the death. They both moved like partners, knowing exactly what the other would do.

And they both were getting more and more frustrated.

* * *

While Naruto and Neo were having their dance of death, Torchwick had been having a very much _not_ fun time. Immediately following the cloud of mist, he had activated the Paladin's laser sensors, trying to catch the bothersome pests as they ran to and fro in the mist. He opened fire on a place he thought he had just seen someone, then on a place where he was sure he had seen one, and then Red had come bursting out of the mist, slashing with that oversized gardening tool of hers.

Ruby yelled out to her teammates, "Checkmate!"

Blake and Weiss rushed forwards, and began slashing at the mech's feet, sending sparks out in every direction. Weiss leapt up, stabbing one of the sensors on the front of the robot, then creating a glyph beneath her as she jumped away from it. As it tried to crush Blake, she created another glyph beneath the Faunus, pulling her away from it before it could.

Torchwick growled in annoyance, firing off rockets in all directions, before they converged on the two huntresses-in-training that had just attacked him. They began flipping backwards, avoiding all of the rockets. But then, the girl in white jumped a just a bit too high for her own good, and Torchwick seized the opportunity, launching two energy blasts at her. To his dismay, she blocked the brunt of the attacks with her rapier, but she was sent flying from the force anyways.

As Weiss fell backwards, she produced one more glyph beneath Blake. The cat girl absorbed it, and when Torchwick fired his next volley of rockets, she swung at unimaginable speeds, sending a wave of energy in practically every direction in front of her, destroying all the rockets as she turned away from them in an acrobatic display.

Ruby rushed forwards again, "Ladybug!"

She fired off her scythe behind her, using its force to launch herself underneath the robot, landing on the other side as she went. From there, she and Blake passed back and forth, striking at each of the legs as they went. However, they succeeded in doing little damage. As Torchwick turned to Ruby, both of them leapt upwards, coming down over top of him, and severing his mech's left arm.

As he was stumbling about, trying to re-balance the mech, Yang ran up behind Torchwick, jumping on top of his mech, and firing off her gauntlets multiple times. Unable to shake her off, or use his remaining arm to hit her, Torchwick flew backwards, crashing through several stone columns as he went. Crashing into a fourth, he stopped, launching the blonde into it. He turned, and as she was falling, he punched with his right arm, sending her right through the support pillar.

Blake called out to her, "YANG!"

Ruby tried to assure her that her sister was fine, "Don't worry! With each hit, she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special!"

Inside his mech, Torchwick scowled at the sight of the blonde standing back up, clenching her fists. He pulled back the mech's arm, and punched straight downwards into the no-doubt exhausted girl.

…Only for her to block it with her bare hands, creating a crater beneath her feet from the force of the punch. She looked up at him, her eyes now blood red. He growled, ready to attack again. Before he could even move, she pulled back her own fist, and let it fly, punching right through the mech's arm, shattering it to pieces.

Without having more weight on one side than the other, Torchwick re-balanced much quicker, kicking Yang away from the mech, sending her flying through the air, past her teammates. Ruby turned to Blake, calling out, "Bumblebee!"

Blake threw her gun to Yang, holding the other end of the ribbon. The blonde caught it as she flew past a recovering Weiss, and Blake pulled it taught, allowing Yang to swing back around, trying to kick the mech from the side. Torchwick saw it coming, and stepped backwards, avoiding the attack.

Ruby yelled out to her team, "We have to slow it down!"

Weiss leapt forward, next to Ruby. "And how do you propose we do that?" she asked her partner.

Ruby turned to face the mech, "Ice Flower!"

Torchwick looked up, and saw Red and her white-wearing friend off in the distance. The heiress created three glyphs in front of Ruby's sniper, and the young leader fired it, sending an almost arcane bullet into the mech, creating a bloom of ice on where its shoulder would be, if it still had arms. Ruby fired more, producing more ice all over the mech's body, drastically decreasing its maneuverability.

Blake pulled on the ribbon once more, sending Yang flying around in a wide circle, with her fist soaring straight into the cockpit of the mech, sending it and its passenger flying. The mech shattered to pieces, and Torchwick stood, brushing off his suit.

* * *

Back over with Naruto and Neo, they paused for just a moment, hearing a huge crash, as both of them witnessed Yang shatter the entire mech with a single punch. Naruto was about to reengage to small girl, only to turn and find she had disappeared.

' _Another illusion?'_

" **No. She's rushing for the orange haired one."**

Naruto began to run for Team RWBY, to back them up. As he did, he looked off to the side, seeing Diana, who had apparently been excited for this fight, sitting against a pillar, eating a bagel. Just, a bagel. Nothing on it, and it probably wasn't still hot, but she was eating it anyways.

Yang, seeing Torchwick, furiously fired another round at him, only for that girl from before to drop down in front of him and block it with her parasol. Torchwick turned to them, smirk on his face, "Ladies. Ice Queen."

"Hey!" Weiss said resentfully. Torchwick ignored her.

"Always a pleasure," he said, saluting them in taunt. He turned to the small girl. "Neo, if you would…"

The girl, Neo, gave a little bow, arm outstretched behind her, as Naruto, Ruby, Blake, Yang, and Weiss all converged on the same spot, about twenty feet away. The two of them just stood still for a bit, confusing Team RWBY. Naruto began looking around, having already dealt with several of Neo's tricks.

' _Kyūbi?'_

" **She's running with that Torchwick man. They've begun to move through the air."**

Not getting it was an illusion, Naruto could see Yang's back as she charged for the pair, punching through them, only for them to break into pieces as the sound of more broken glass rang out. Looking around, she saw the two flying off in a Bullhead.

When she turned to watch the Bullhead, Naruto thought he caught a glimpse of red in Yang's eye. He frowned, but when he looked again, her eyes were their usual purple. The rest of Team RWBY and Naruto all gathered around Yang, who stated the obvious, "So I guess he got a new henchman."

Doing the unthinkable, Weiss tried something she had ridiculed Yang an incredible amount for doing: She tried to make a pun.

"Yeah, I guess she really made our plans… Fall apart?" Weiss tried. Ruby held back a snicker, while Naruto covered his face with his hand, Blake walked away, and Yang muttered disapprovingly.

"No… Just, no."

Weiss got a little angry about the denial of her joke, "What- But you do it!"

Yang put her fists on her hips, "There's a time and a place for jokes."

"Was this not it?"

Yang began to walk away, "No, it just… wasn't very good."

Weiss followed her, "Well, at least I'm trying!"

"Wait… Where are Sun and Neptune?" Ruby asked, looking around.

"You know, Ruby, I was wondering the same thing. Troy vanished as well," Naruto said, walking with the rest of her team. He turned to his teammate. "Diana! We're done here!"

She stood up, happily finishing her bagel. Naruto walked over to Blake, but before he could say anything, she slapped him. He held the side of his face, staring at her with his mouth half open, as if asking "Why?"

"I didn't want you to come along, Naruto," She said, glaring at him. "This wasn't your problem."

He glared back at her, "I don't care. You needed help, and I offered."

She looked down. "I… I didn't want you to…"

He held up his hand, "It's fine, Blake. You don't need to justify yourself. I just want you to remember that I'm always willing to help."

She looked up at him, speechless. He smiled, and walked away before she could think up anything.

* * *

Troy woke, finding himself in the middle of a freeway, and somehow not causing a huge traffic jam. Looking around, it was evident why. The cars from Torchwick's… idea… were piled around, on their sides or tops. There were people lying around, clearly injured in various ways. He reached for his scroll, but found that trying to move his arm gave him incredible pain.

"Right. Broken right arm. Wonderful. Just great," he muttered to himself. He reached with his left arm, calling the emergency services, making sure they knew there was an issue. It was probably unnecessary, but he felt an obligation to do it, given that he was part of the reason why all these people were wounded.

And, of course, a bit on the selfish side, he wanted help with his arm. Soon afterwards, several police officers arrived, along with a veritable fleet of ambulances. One by one, those who survived the crash were taken by the ambulances, while those that didn't were taken by the coroners.

* * *

 **Omake #1- Ninja Competition: Part 1 (Idea by: Darkbeast42)**

"Oh, please. Like you could beat me," said a rather cocky Naruto. There weren't many things he would get like this over, but when someone questioned his skill as a ninja, that was crossing the line. He had surpassed the Fourth Hokage, damn it! He wasn't about to be shown up by some guy in a different universe! He turned back to his ramen, eating it furiously.

Ren merely scoffed, "I'd be willing to bet I could beat you with my eyes closed. You wear orange, for god's sake! How can you sneak around like that?" The member of Team JNPR crossed his arms, somewhat stuck-up as he turned away from Naruto. Like he had any stealth skills at all! He probably couldn't even open his door without everyone in a two mile radius hearing it.

Naruto rolled his eyes, turning to his fellow Faunus, "Hey, back me up here, Blake."

She looked up at him from her book, not moving her head to face him. "Why? Neither of you could out-ninja me anyways," she challenged. She had seen Naruto and Ren fight. They were nothing like ninjas, especially not Naruto. Ren had raised a good point about his color choice.

"Ah, come on!" Naruto complained, turning back to Ren. "I'd bet you anything that I could out-stealth you, out-speed you, and out-fight-a-war you."

Ren cocked his head, bewildered, "What? Fight a war? Since when were ninja the fighters of wars?"

"Back home they were! We fought three against other villages!" Naruto was getting into the argument. The rest of all of their teams were watching them, heads zipping back and forth between them. "Just watch! I'll show you! Let's have a competition!"

"What kind of competition?" Blake asked, looking up at last. She was a bit competitive, especially when it was something that interested her. And when someone claimed to be a better ninja than her, she was definitely interested. Naruto turned to her.

"First, we shall have a race! Second, we shall have an infiltration mission! Third, we shall have a fight with each other!" Naruto exclaimed. Ren and Blake stared at him blankly.

"So, I get the infiltration, but why the other two?" Weiss asked from across the table. Naruto spun on his spot to meet her gaze. He was getting a wild grin on his face.

"The race will be a test of speed and agility! Did I mention it would be a race through the forest? The fight… well that honestly should be obvious. Fighting is important to a ninja!" Naruto was coming off more and more as a crazy person. However, Ren seemed to enjoy the idea, and Blake was nodding.

"So," Ruby began. "What does the winner get?"

Ren spoke up, "Acknowledgement as the best ninja."

Naruto continued, "A lot of ramen!"

Blake finished, "Some peace and quiet."

"Hmmmmm…" Yang hummed. "It sounds interesting. We should do this tomorrow!"

Naruto gave an exaggerated thumbs up, "Yes, we should! But today…" He sighed. "Is classes."

* * *

 **Eh… I don't know about that omake. It was more than a little short. Ah, well. At least I have plans for more. Let me know if you enjoyed it. I'm definitely dragging it out to multiple parts.**

 **You know, anytime I see a review that just says something like 'Great Chapter' or something similar, I always enjoy it much more than I probably should. 'Cause seeing those reviews means that someone, somewhere had spent their own time to give a compliment to someone they have never met, just based on how well they write.**

 **Hell, I enjoy negative reviews more than I probably should, as well. After all, they point out (usually(sometimes)) things that went wrong somewhere in the writing process, like Ugh a few chapters ago.**

 **A quick guest review, for TheB: Has anything Blake done all series actually made sense? Think about it. She ran from Vale because... um... reasons? Why did she do that, anyways? Yang's arm? She completely gave up on going after the White Fang after they got Torchwick, for some reason. And now, apparently, she wants to reclaim the White Fang. Spoilers, by the way.**

 **Until Chapter 8!**


	8. Chapter 8: The Training

**A short explanation about something last chapter: Diana. I'll be honest, I actually completely forgot she was there for a while. So, instead of rewriting what was A) already completely written (Laziness wins again), and B) Probably my favorite fight in the series, I had her eating a bagel. Would any of you believe me f I said I actually have a plan for her backstory? 'Cause, trust me, I actually do.**

 **Speaking of plans... People. I have a large amount of this story planned out. As in, everything up to the end of Volume Three. In fact, I've got an overview of my plan in a document labeled 'A Detailed and Well Laid-Out Plan.' And yes, that name is bad.**

 **I don't own Naruto or RWBY. Or Dragon Ball. Or Hunter x Hunter. Or any anime. Or manga.**

* * *

Chapter 8: The Training

A funny side effect of not getting to sleep until past two in the morning? When you have to wake up for classes the next day, you tend to be tired. Exhausted, even. And for Naruto, he could barely walk, because of all the strain he put on his legs when he fought Neo.

Troy wasn't even in the dorm, probably because of whatever it was that kept him from joining in on the fight. Diana, as always, was energetic, even after last night.

Melissa, on the other hand, was angry about being left behind. She spent a good hour ranting about how unfair it was, and how she could have helped. The thing was, they hadn't even told her what they had been doing. Naruto probably should have felt bad, but he was trying to get feeling back in his legs.

" **Perhaps if you weren't so reckless, this wouldn't be an issue."**

' _Shut up. You're not helping."_

" **Well, it's not as though I can heal tiredness. What do you want me to do?"**

Naruto ignored him, as it was time to go to Oobleck's class. As they were leaving, Troy showed up at the door, with his arm in a sling. He waved at them with his other hand, passing them to go and get dressed. Naruto, Diana, and Melissa began the trek halfway across the school, with Naruto using Melissa as a support.

"I should not have used so much speed last night," Naruto said flatly. Diana nodded in excited agreement.

Melissa tried to scold him, much like a mother, "Well, maybe you won't be so careless in the future. Honestly, what were you doing that caused you such… soreness?"

"I was fighting a tiny girl with an umbrella and the power to make illusions," Naruto said, looking right at Melissa, who stared back, blankly. She breathed in deeply, through her nose.

"You know, I don't honestly know what I was expecting. Maybe something, like… I don't know… A horde of Grimm? What happened, anyways?" she finally asked, looking from Diana to Naruto. Naruto raised an eyebrow at her.

"Wasn't it on the news? I could've sworn there was a point where he made a bunch of cars rain down on a freeway…" He said, looking at Diana for confirmation. She nodded again, now eating a doughnut. Melissa stared blankly again. She seemed lost.

"Well, between the giant mech, the White Fang, and Diana eating a bagel, it was a pretty crazy night," Naruto said vaguely, holding back a grin at Melissa's frustration. He forgot how much fun it was to mess with people. In the back of his mind, he wondered whether or not he should start his pranks again.

Melissa held back a growl. Naruto was intentionally keeping it from her, she could tell. He was having fun with this. "Ass," She muttered. Naruto chuckled.

"Fine. I'll tell you after Oobleck's class," he conceded, having arrived at the doctor's classroom. Melissa groaned. Having to sit through one of Oobleck's classes before she could hear these exciting events? A fate worse than death, by God.

Inside the classroom, it appeared as though none of the students visiting for the Vytal Festival had shown up, or that they simply weren't in the class. Ruby gave Naruto a cheery wave as they walked in, which he responded to with a grin, since his hands were being used for support.

They sat in their usual place, just behind Team RWBY. Ruby turned around to look at Naruto, looking a little worried. "What happened, Naruto? Why were you leaning on Melissa?" She asked, looking him over.

"Oh, nothing much. Just a side effect from last night. Went a bit too fast fighting the tiny girl, and my legs started to give out," He explained. Her brow furrowed.

"How come that's never happened to me?" It was a good question, at least it sounded to be to the others. Naruto got why, however. His speed wasn't the result of a Semblance, so his body wasn't meant to move so fast. Just like how Bushy-Brows couldn't move well after he had fought Gaara. Beyond, that is, the thousand breaks in his leg. The difference was, Naruto had used a lot more speed, for a lot longer.

"Well, you're probably just better with the whole 'speed' thing," Ruby beamed, and he could tell she was happy with his explanation. He got the feeling that she was probably rather proud of her Semblance, especially whenever he admitted she was faster than he was.

Blake was eyeing him strangely, like she was trying to figure something out. After a while, she frowned, turning forward. Yang winked at him in knowing, like she was reliving the fight last night. Weiss kept her eyes facing forward, ever the dutiful student. Soon, Oobleck zoomed in, beginning his lesson on the Great War with gusto.

* * *

After the lesson, Naruto tried walking on his own, feeling his legs could probably hold him by now. A moment after he let go of Melissa, his knees buckled, though he was caught by Troy before he fell far. Apparently, Troy's injury had been minor enough that his Aura had fixed it in only about twelve hours.

The fox was a little impressed by how fast the citizens of this new dimension could heal. And perhaps a little jealous, though he would never admit it. Today was one of the few days they had when they only had one class in the morning, and none for the rest of the day, meaning Naruto could, if he wanted, go back to his dorm and sleep it off.

But according to the fox, his legs would be back to normal before much longer. He looked over at Troy, "Hey, Troy. Take me up to the roof. I'm gonna spend a while up there." His teammate looked hesitant, but complied anyways, despite Melissa's protest.

"Naruto is injured! Also, he needs to tell me what happened last night, why he's as hurt as he says he is!" She complained, while Troy walked away. He called over his shoulder that he would tell her once he left Naruto on the roof.

Thanking Troy as he left, Naruto sat down at the edge of the roof, the same as he had done for several months now. The view he had had become engraved into his mind. He could see Beacon Tower, but off in the distance, he could see all of Vale. When it was dark out, the lights of the city twinkled beautifully. He could see the expanse of nature all around them, but knowing that those places were probably full of Grimm was somewhat dampening for the mood. He sat, meditating, working ever more on Sage Mode. He was close. He knew it. A few hours passed before the Kyūbi spoke.

" **You seem to have a visitor. It's the cat girl."**

Naruto opened his eyes, sensing the Faunus behind him. As she sat down next to him, Blake sighed copiously. She looked at him, with her expression being between a scowl and a frown, some anger in her voice, "Why are you so determined to help me? What have I done for you?"

"Blake, I will do whatever it takes to help a friend in need. Plus, you remind me of a friend I had one time. I don't want to see something like that happen to you, but it might end up that way if you keep going down this road of revenge," he explained. She tried to speak, to deny it was vengeance, or possibly to ask what had happened, but he hushed her. "It is revenge, Blake. You want revenge on the White Fang for all the pain it caused you.

I will never, _ever,_ abandon a friend. Bear that in mind, Neko-chan," he finished with a wink, getting up and leaving the roof, as Blake turned from looking at his back to looking out over to Vale. Naruto sighed as he left the roof. He had told Blake the truth, just not all of it. Oh, well. Another time, perhaps. For today, he was starting to think rest was a good idea.

* * *

Unfortunately, the day went by too quickly for Naruto's tastes. Soon, he had arrived back to his dorm, just in time for Melissa to hear the end of Troy's tale of yesterday. She turned to him as soon as the door opened; bombarding him with questions, demanding to hear what happened after Troy was knocked out. He told her his part of the story, omitting the conversations with the fox, obviously. He also left out his Rasengan.

He couldn't tell her what happened with the mech, which was the thing she was interested in, mainly. Apparently, Diana had been so invested in that bagel of hers that she hadn't even noticed there was a fight going on once she sat down.

Avoiding the rest of her questions, Naruto took off his jacket and haori, climbing into bed. As he sat in the strange bed, he thought to himself, before drifting off to sleep, _'I need new pajamas.'_

When he woke, he opened his eyes slowly. It was dark, but thanks to his new Faunus traits, he had no trouble seeing the room clearly, even without infusing chakra into his eyes. The clock over on the desk said it was after midnight, meaning he had slept for roughly twelve hours. He must have been more tired than he thought.

Seeing he wasn't falling asleep anytime soon, he got up, putting his clothes back on, and leaving the dorm. He wanted to see Vale.

The roof, as one might expect, was locked off at this time of night, but that didn't mean Naruto couldn't get up there. Instead of climbing up, and risking someone seeing him, he sent a small portion of chakra to his legs, and jumped, soaring high up, right to the roof.

He sat down, gazing out over the edge, being able to see all of the lights in the distance with no trouble. Even Beacon Tower was lit up tonight. In general, it was a peaceful environment. He began to meditate just a little. Not trying to practice Sage Mode, just sitting, breathing, and thinking to himself.

So much had happened since he came here. He had gone back to school, he had made several new friends, and he had learned that mankind could work together. It just took a little cooperation. If he ever got back to his own world, he wanted to bring peace to them, to end the wars they had all waged so many times.

He sighed to himself, thinking back on what he had told Blake about. He hadn't actually thought about it, but now he would never have the chance to fulfill his promise to Sakura. And that irked him greatly.

Oh, man… They were probably really worried about him back home, if it was still standing. After all, he hadn't shown up in several months, after disappearing through a pool of water meant for toads. Yeah, maybe that hadn't been the best idea. Now he thought about it, hadn't Geezer Sage warned him?

Yeah, maybe he should have seen this coming. Probably.

* * *

Ah, another wonderful Saturday. A bright, beautiful Saturday, as well. Several of the teams Beacon played host to were abuzz with excitement, planning to travel to Vale. Among these many teams, with the exception of one member, was Team MDNT. Troy, Diana, and Melissa were going to be spending the day in the city, just enjoying the lovely weather as they walked around, perhaps shopping, perhaps battling a giant Grimm as it attacked the city. Who knew?

Naruto, however, had other plans. He, like Melissa, decided that the Emerald Forest had a few too many Grimm. He had plans to spend the entire morning traveling around, training against the monsters. But also, the Emerald Forest was a very natural place, full of energy. It would be much easier gather Natural Energy in it, as opposed to the roof of Beacon.

And so, he left his dorm at around six, six thirty. He was awake before even Diana, and out of the room by the time she was stirring. He only brought his clothes and chokutō, deciding he needed to practice more with the still unfamiliar weapon. Up to now, he had been trying to use it as he used a kunai, and he could tell that wasn't a good way to wield it.

But besides that, he was unnerved by how much difficulty he had had with the tiny girl, Neo. He felt sure he probably could've beaten her, given time, but that wasn't good enough. He hadn't even managed to beat her before she had fled with Torchwick, and yet he wasn't able to walk on his own the next morning.

All of these thoughts were rumbling around Naruto's head as he walked down the hallways, making his way through the school to Beacon Cliff. He was a little surprised that anyone else was up, but he did see a few students walking around. They looked to be from Haven.

Fond memories of initiation aside, the Emerald Forest was a beautiful sight in the early morning. The trees seemed to sparkle in the mid-morning sun, and the various bits of the temple seemed as though they were built into the forest, as it flowed so smoothly over and around them. The expanse of woods reminded him a little of the forest around the Leaf, or maybe even the Forest of Death.

He shuddered, remembering the sensation of being eaten by a snake. Ignoring it, he sat down, meditating once more, gathering the nature energy into himself. It really was easier here, where nature still reigned, rather than the city, or even Beacon, where mankind had taken the wilds.

Soon, very soon, he felt his body change just a little, and he stopped gathering energy. He stood, stretching slightly, and looking himself over. His hands had become webbed, and he felt a few warts on his face, but other than that, he seemed to be normal. It wasn't as well done as on Mount Myōboku, but it was a good first try in this new world.

Getting himself ready, he backed away from the cliff, before he began to sprint for it at high speed, leaping off of it into the open air above the Grimm-filled woods. Not having to worry about landing well, he filled his entire body with chakra, fortifying his bones for the landing. He landed on his left hand, twisting off of it and springing to his feet.

"I just need to see…" He muttered to himself, as he made a few clones for the first time in months.

Hours later, Naruto was still working on getting the ratio of chakra and natural energy correct. He was getting closer, but it would be much more difficult outside of the woods, in somewhere like the city. Right now, however, he was in his base form, trying to perfect something.

"Come… on…" he growled. He turned to a tree. "RASENGAN!"

The orb exploded before he could hit the tree with it. It was still easy enough to do with a clone, thank Kami, but he wanted to be able to use it one-handed, the way Ero-Sennin had. It just wasn't working. He had no idea what it was he was doing wrong, but for some reason the chakra destabilized whenever he would try to attack with it.

"I need to stay focused," he muttered to himself. Perhaps that was it; he was losing control of the chakra because he stopped focusing on it. But no, that didn't work either. He had created a small clearing from the amount of explosions he had caused, and he was starting to run out of chakra. It was like that time he had spent an entire day climbing a tree.

Deciding he needed a short respite, Naruto went off to find another Grimm to cut in half. Maybe an Ursa. Yeah…

The Grimm weren't hard to find, since all Naruto had to do was be really loud as he traveled through the woods, something he tended to be anyways. Soon, he was attacked, not by an Ursa as he had hoped, but by a King Taijitu. The serpentine Grimm slithered around him in the middle of a clearing, one head seeming to approach from one side while the other head seemed to come up from the other side.

Naruto waited, just another second… and jumped, right over the lunging white head of the snake. He came down with his blade pointed downwards, driving it into the white half of the snake. Unfortunately, he appeared to just annoy the large Grimm.

He jumped off, pulling his blade out of the snake as he twisted it, causing more damage, hopefully.

He groaned mentally. _'Hey, Kyūbi? These things don't have an Aura, right?"_

" **No, they don't. But at the same time, you're low on chakra."**

' _Nah, I've got enough.'_

Naruto ran for the black head, extending his right hand out to his side while his left held his pistol. He began the sphere, holding it at a small size for stability. Just before he impacted the serpentine, he flooded it with chakra, causing it to explode in his hand, sending him flying and obliterating the Grimm's black head.

Though it worked, the side effect was that his arm felt like it was on fire. He sheathed his sword, and clutched his arm in pain. Then the white head reared up, as he rolled his eyes.

"Oh, for fu-"

He was drowned out by a colossal roar from the King Taijitu, presumably from the pain of its other head having just exploded. It slunk towards him, dragging the remains of the other head behind it as they bounced on the ground in a hilarious fashion. It lunged at him, soaring through the air, chomping its mouth around him in a single bite.

Only for a familiar chokutō to cut a hole through its head. Naruto climbed through it, victorious in a most brutal fashion.

" **I'm not sure whether to be impressed or not."**

' _I'm going with impressed.'_

Naruto walked away from the scene of rapidly-decaying carnage he had created, looking for another tree to meditate in. He found a nice tall one, and climbed to the top, sitting down to gather energy.

' _Hey, Kyūbi? Know any better ways to train? This isn't much work.'_

" **You could undo the seal, and we could battle."**

' _Very funny.'_

" **We could."**

Choosing to ignore the fox, and focus on the energy he was gathering, Naruto stopped the moment he felt a change. He stood in the tree, feeling the world around him without having to focus. He felt a rush of energy, of power, and of chakra. He knew: he had entered his Sage Mode.

He looked himself over, pleased that he didn't find any toad features. He closed his eyes, now horizontal yellow slits, orange pigmentation over them, and breathed in deeply. He faced towards Beacon Cliff, roughly three miles away. He exhaled, and the tree toppled over from the force of his jump off of it.

He could almost feel the skin on his face peeling off as he went, jumping from tree to tree at incredible speeds, reaching Beacon Cliff in a matter of seconds. Off-handedly, he wondered if Ruby was still faster when he was in Sage Mode. He suspected not.

A minute later, he felt his Sage Mode leave him, as he had spent a while marveling at the fact that he had accessed it so well. But then a thought came to him. Geezer-Sage had said that he still had about a week of training ahead of him. He wondered what that could be. Probably finishing up Frog Kata. But beyond that, Naruto would need practice in a less natural area. The forest was probably the easiest place to enter it, followed by Beacon, and then Vale. If he managed to enter Sage Mode perfectly in the city… the thought was wonderful, especially since he knew what to look forward to.

He climbed back up Beacon Cliff, pausing only for a moment to look out over the forest. A sad smile came to his face, as he thought of Konoha. He reached the top of the cliff, only to find someone waiting for him.

Ozpin stood casually, sipping his coffee, as he looked over Naruto. The boy had nicks and cuts all over, the results of his 'training' in the woods this morning. "Well, you seem to have been having a productive morning," he said, nodding towards the part of the forest Naruto had torn to pieces.

Naruto stood, petrified, but also wondering what the headmaster was going to do. In the back of his mind, he wondered why he was here. But he said nothing, for nothing came to mind for him to say.

Ozpin continued, "Would you mind explaining to me what exactly you _were_ doing, so early in the morning on a fine day like this?"

"I was training in the woods. I had a few things I wanted to practice," Naruto said, gesturing to his sheathed sword. "I thought students were allowed to use the Emerald Forest for that."

Ozpin took a sip from his mug, and closed his eyes, breathing in through his nose, "Oh, indeed. Students are allowed usage of the forest. I was merely asking why you had decided to 'practice a few things' so early in the morning. Forgive me if I am mistaken, but most students would want to sleep on a Saturday morning."

Naruto nodded, still keeping his eyes on the professor, "I felt that I needed to improve after what happened a few days ago."

The headmaster raised an eyebrow, "Oh? And what did happen? You wouldn't be referring to the unfortunate incident with the Atlesian Paladin, would you?"

"Yeah, that's what I was talking about… Why? I thought people had heard about that."

"Oh, indeed they have," he took another sip. "But not of who was involved in such illegal activities. I'm afraid I must ask you, in the future, not to engage in combat of that nature in the middle of a city.

However, that is not what I wish to talk to you about. I respect my student's privacy, barring when it may cause harm to the school or its students. Now then, would you kindly explain why you don't have any records, any history, at all?"

Naruto sighed, looking down, "Well, I suppose it had to happen eventually…" He looked up at the headmaster. "As I told you before, my village was very secretive. But, I didn't tell you everything. My village is a very far ways away, not even on this continent. We didn't even know about the Kingdoms' existence."

Ozpin hummed a little, "That would make sense, but for another question I have for you," he looked over the tired boy, with scarring on his hand from… something. It spiraled outwards, in a very peculiar way. "However, I do not wish to rob you of all of your secrets. Should you ever wish to tell me of your actual history, you have but to come to me."

The headmaster turned in his heel, beginning to walk away. He hoped the boy wouldn't call his bluff, and even more that he wasn't wrong. He truly had no idea if the boy was telling the truth about his village or not. And there was still his lack of Aura, even though he clearly had a Semblance. Mysteries for another day.

* * *

Something about meeting with Ozpin had rattled Naruto. He wasn't sure if it was his tone, his reasons, or his questions, but the old man bothered Naruto somehow. It was like talking to a mixture of Kakashi-sensei and Ji-chan. He also acted like he didn't believe Naruto, and to be fair he might not have, but he mentioned other questions he had for the blond.

Either way, Naruto decided he was probably done for the day. Between the horrible blister he had acquired from the explosion of the Rasengan and how much chakra he had used that day, he felt knackered. Or at least, not as though he would want to get into a fight for a day or so. Luckily, he didn't have any plans to go and battle a giant robot or anything, so he was all good.

A part of him regretted not going to Vale with his team, since it was probably a nice place to be today, but he felt that it was well worth it. Starting to master Sage Mode was probably a more productive use of time than watching his teammates buy dust. After all, it was always the same: Troy grabbed fire dust, Melissa grabbed ice, and Diana didn't get any.

It felt weird to Naruto to think that he had entered Sage Mode. While he had certainly done it months ago, in his own world, that was months ago, in his own world. He essentially re-taught himself how to access the chakra of all of nature.

All he needed to perfect now was his Rasengan. He might have been able to use it on his own in Sage Mode, if he used both hands, but that still wasn't good enough for him. Even Kakashi-sensei could do it better than he could. He never got quite what it was he was doing wrong, but for whatever reason, he could do it perfectly if he had a clone to help him. He, for some reason, couldn't sustain the rotation and the chakra at the same time, until the Rasengan was fully formed. Then it was no issue. It made no sense, as seemed to be the case whenever chakra was involved.

* * *

Melissa groaned. This was starting to become a nuisance. They had visited several Dust stores that day, only to find they had increased their prices immensely, due to all of Torchwick's robberies lately.

The first store had been a little on the small side anyways, with a few patches in the ceiling and walls that needed upkeep desperately. It seemed a little foolish to allow the highly explosive Dust to be sold in a building that looked like it would collapse at any moment.

The second and third had both been incredibly generic storefronts, the little Dust they had in display cases in the front of the store, with almost nothing else being sold.

The fourth store had been little more than a shack, with a single case of dust. They didn't even try to go in that one. It seemed like a front for some kind of… well, they weren't actually sure, but it was incredibly suspicious.

The fifth one had so much Dust on sale that they were almost sure it was illegally acquired. Like, through smuggling, or other means. Possibly robbing other Dust stores. Either way, they weren't sure they wanted to buy any, especially since it costed as much as the other stores' Dust anyways.

"Guys, maybe we should just give up on Dust for now. I don't think we'll find any good prices in all of Vale," she said to her teammates. Troy nodded solemnly, while Diana didn't really care about the Dust, since she didn't use any.

The members of Team MDNT were left, once more, to wander the streets in search of recreation. After a few hours of failing to find anything interesting, they made one final stop in a clothing store. Soon afterwards, they returned to Beacon, with naught to show for their day in Vale.

* * *

Saturday, though Naruto felt it was spent well, was very boring and quick. Sunday came soon enough, a day on which even less happened. All he did all day was walk around the school, eat lunch, and sleep.

The week passed by with its usual monotony, the daily routine sinking back in after the excitement of last week. Naruto was, however, a little worried about Blake. She was starting to look a little sickly, and she had been avoiding him for some reason. Then came Wednesday, which had scheduled for them three different classes. First was history. The second was Grimm Studies. The third was combat.

The more Naruto sat through learning the history of this world, the more he realized how strange it was. They had, by his count, two large-scale wars in the last century. But in a world where negative emotions brought more death, why would you ever want to fight one another? The answer, as he had learned, was over the different rights of different groups of people.

Of course, Grimm Studies still meant they would listen to Port's tall tales for an entire class, but at least it gave Naruto some time to think. He could spend the class thinking up new ways to try his Rasengan, to get it under control and use it one-handed. He could also fantasize about different ways he could use the Rasengan, like the one idea he had where he would make an Ōdama Rasengan, and then a few smaller Rasengans around it. Oh, if only.

Combat class, however, was a different story. Almost every student looked forward to it, since it was the only practical class they actually had. Today had a particularly excited atmosphere, since for some reason Pyrrha was going to fight an entire team. It may have only been Team CRDL, but it was still four on one.

Naruto wasn't worried, though. And no one else amongst Teams RWBY, JNPR, and MDNT was worried either. Pyrrha had demonstrated incredible prowess in battle in every one of her fights, even when she had fought Naruto. At least, he thought she had done pretty well.

To start, Pyrrha had the four members of Team CRDL on each side of her. The match began, and Pyrrha rushed Cardin, who met her blows with his mace, but only barely in time. The arm he held the mace in was sent flying backwards as well, setting him off balance, and leaving her with a chance to strike. Before she could, Dove Bronzewing attacked from behind, forcing her to block his strikes. Sky Lark came from behind her, meaning she was fighting a battle on two fronts. She blocked swing after swing of their weapons, even getting several of her own in. Dove backed off briefly, with Russel Thrush taking his place in attacking.

Pyrrha swung at Russel, knocking him off his feet, and turned her attention to Sky, doing a very brief duel with him. She knocked him away, and began to rush at Cardin, switching her sword to its lance form. She swung left. Blocked. Upwards. A small amount of the attack got through. She tried stabbing, getting blocked again. With her lance held next to her face, she fired off a round from the barrel, located while it was in lance form at the end of the shaft. At the same time, she dashed forward, the end result being her slashing across Cardin, sending him down on one knee.

As he turned to face her, she leapt into the air above him, stabbing down with her sword, shifting to her lance as she fired it once again, launching into Dove's sword. It bounced off, just behind her as she swept his legs out from under him, sending him onto his back. Quickly using her rifle, she fired a shot into Sky, only for him to block it with his staff. As the gun recoiled, she switched back to her sword. She held her shield up, both arms holding it against the swing of the halberd Sky used. Throwing his weapon a little, Pyrrha swung her sword around, transforming it into a lance as she went, swiping downwards, mostly blocked by the halberd.

As she swung her lance back around to attack again, she fired a bullet from its end at Sky, with him blocking it again. From the recoil, her lance begun to spin around much faster, striking at least twice, with him barely able to block each time. She caught her lance, and pulled it back. She swung upwards, converting it to sword form. As she swung around, she changed it to rifle form yet again, firing a round. The recoil carried the gun back a little. She turned it into its sword form, backhanding it as she swiped across him horizontally.

While she swung back around, she shifted it into a lance, holding it angled upwards slightly. She began to stab, firing the rifle once more as she did. The attack made it through his defense, but was blunted to just force from his Aura, sending him flying backwards.

Cardin watched as his teammate flew past him, turning back to Pyrrha just in time to see her swinging at him with her sword, firing another round as she went. His mace blocked the bullet, but was forced backwards by the accompanying sword strike. They recovered in sync, her swinging forwards from the right to the left while he blocked the attack. He swung from left to right, being blocked by her shield. He brought his mace over his head, slamming it down into the ground, making a small explosion.

She cartwheeled out of the way, as he spun around to allow the momentum of his attack to build. She blocked it once again, but was sent skidding several feet from its force. As Pyrrha stopped sliding, she turned to see Sky coming up from behind to attack. He swung over his head, down into the ground. She jumped over his attack, parallel with the ground. As she went, she turned to her left, seeing Cardin ready to attack once again.

She blocked his attack with her shield, which sent her back down onto the ground. She used her momentum to spin on the ground, knocking over Sky with her legs. She tried to knock Cardin over as well, but he contorted his body in a strange way, avoiding the attack. He punched downwards, but she rolled back, avoiding it and landing on her feet. She ran at Cardin, jumping up and rolling over his back, throwing her shield into his face as she went. She let it pass her as it bounced off, smacking into Sky's head, bouncing upwards. She backflipped through the air, landing feet first on Sky's back, knocking him out.

Dove and Russel charged her together, as she rushed forwards to meet them, slamming her shield into Russel's abdomen, sending him backwards. Landing once again on the ground, Pyrrha swung around to meet Dove's blow, spinning afterwards for a follow-up. He blocked, and she swung upwards, only to be blocked once more. She spun again, kicking him away as she did. Cardin sprinted forwards, jumping through the air and coming down with a huge crash, smashing his mace into the ground. She jumped backwards to avoid being squished.

Moving backwards still, Pyrrha flipped back, shifting to her rifle, firing off a few rounds. Russel came down in front of Cardin, blocking the bullets with his daggers. Dove rushed off to the side, while Russel came straight for her. He spun through the air, landing his feet against her shield as she changed her rifle back to a sword, swiping down with a dagger as he recovered. Both Dove and Russel began to attack her in sync, forcing her to block several blows as they attacked her rather acrobatically. They moved behind her, as Cardin approached in front, swinging his mace horizontally. She dove under it, rolling into an upright position, rifle in hand.

She fired at Cardin, who spun his mace in a circle to block each of them. He moved in, but she jumped up and kneed him in the face, sending him stumbling backwards. He swung wildly, which she blocked with her shield. She swung from the right, while he blocked with his mace yet again. He swung high, and she allowed it to graze over her shield, kicking him in the stomach. He stumbled backwards, recovering by swinging his mace over his head again. She deflected the attack with her shield, swinging once more. He blocked it, and she brought her sword back, only to meet his mace once more.

She attacked again from the right, though this time, his blocking turned him too far, allowing her to jab his back. He fell away, turning to face her once again with a swing. She ducked under it, raising her sword to block his follow-up. Their weapons clanged off each other, and each brought their own back around, blocking each other with an attack. Pyrrha spun, holding her sword behind her head to block, as she swung at Cardin, who had once again turned himself too far with his efforts. She struck his shoulder, then his arm, then his back.

He moved away, disoriented, as Russel came back to attack her. She dodged his daggers as he stabbed again and again with them. Transforming her sword as it swung around her neck, Pyrrha grabbed the shaft once more, holding it over her shoulders. She dodged to the side, avoiding a dagger he had thrown, before launching her shield into his head. She swung wide with her lance, knocking Russel out.

Dove came up to attack, as she brought her spear back around to rest on her shoulders, tip facing him. She fired it again, letting it glide into him, as he brought up his sword to block. She pulled it back again, letting another shot stab it forward once again, only for him to once again deflect it with his blade. Her shield came back down, and she caught it on her left arm. She charged forwards, shield in one hand and sword in another, as Dove fired several bullets from his blade. She blocked each of them with her shield, rolling up next to him.

As she came out of the roll, she swung upwards, though he dodged. Next, she swung from left to right, but he jumped over it, as she had done earlier. As he recovered, he seemed to get dizzy, while Cardin brought his mace up, slamming it into Dove along the way. He brought it down, creating a trail of explosions all the way to Pyrrha, who leapt over and out of the way. She moved forwards, swinging down, then right, then left, before dashing his other side and sending him into the air with an upwards slash with her lance. She jumped up, swiping with her sword multiple times, eventually sending him back several feet.

Still in the air, Pyrrha moved her shield to her feet, springing off of it to maneuver herself around Cardin, while having her lance around his neck, bringing him down with her in a series of flips that ended with him being slammed into the ground, then her kicking him back up as she leapt away. He landed, defeated, as Pyrrha's shield came back down smoothly onto her arm. She stood ready for him to attack again, but he clutched his stomach and stayed where he was.

The lights in the arena came back on, as Professor Goodwitch walked forwards, "And that's the match."

Cardin groaned, "Lucky shot…" before he collapsed on the ground.

"Well done, Ms. Nikos. You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament," Goodwitch said, looking up from Cardin to Pyrrha as she did.

Pyrrha bowed her head slightly with gratitude, "Thank you, Professor."

Professor Goodwitch turned her attention to the students above, "Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match. Any volunteers?" She glanced among the students above, looking back and forth. Her eyes landed on Blake, who was looking once more at the book she had been so fixated on recently. "Ms. Belladonna?" Blake slammed her book shut, staring down at the teacher with wide eyes, taken off-guard. You've been rather docile for the past few classes. Why don't you-"

Naruto, wanting to help, raised his hand to take Goodwitch's attention off of the Faunus. At the same time, a guy in gray raised his hand, calling down, "I'll do it."

"Ah, Mr. Uzumaki and… Mercury, yes? Very well, you two may spar," Glynda allowed. Naruto gave Blake a small wink, but didn't stay long enough to catch her reaction. Soon, Naruto was stood across from Mercury, who seemed slightly upset by something. Naruto mentally shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it.

"You may begin."

Mercury took off at Naruto, being too aggressive for his own good. He kicked at Naruto several times, even trying to swipe sideways at his head once. Naruto weaved through the entire barrage, grinning the entire time. A pause came, and Naruto drew his chokutō, ready to attack. Mercury smirked, moving back in for another series of kicks. Only this time did Naruto notice he had ballistics attached to his feet, which he could somehow fire at his discretion.

Naruto grabbed his left leg as he kicked, pulling him over his head. He landed on his hands, using them to spin for a moment as he shot a few more times, before springing off of them, back onto his feet. Naruto deflected the shots, but almost missed a few of them, due to how quickly they came.

He transformed his chokutō into a pistol as he ran for his opponent, with the hilt bending halfway, the blade flipping over close to the hilt, sliding back slightly and separating down the middle to allow for the barrel to be revealed. Where the hilt bent, the trigger came out. He leapt over his opponent, firing three shots at different intervals, trying to find Mercury's least guarded spots.

He landed, jumping backwards as he shifted his blade back, swiping across Mercury as he went. His opponent ducked under the blade, kicking upwards rather viciously. Naruto grabbed at his leg, using Mercury's momentum to send himself into the air. While he was airborne, he pulled two kunai from his pouch with his left hand, throwing them downwards towards the unsuspecting boy. He kicked them away, dodging backwards just enough to land in front of Naruto when he stabbed downwards.

As he was ready to attack again, the bell signaling the end of class rang out, stopping them both short. Mercury stood up, and began walking away, as Naruto studied him. He fought well, but he had only used kicks the entire time.

Professor Goodwitch, as the students left, reminded them of both the dance over the weekend, and of the missions on Monday. Naruto hadn't heard anything about a dance over the weekend, but he felt excited nonetheless. The only time he had ever been to a dance was one time with Ero-Sennin, where they had served excellent ramen. Not as good as Ichiraku, but better than instant ramen.

And of course, he was no stranger to missions, so he looked forward to that. It meant he could finally get some money to pay Bangs and Bombs, and still have some extra.

* * *

For a sinister team of evil-doers, Cinder and her subordinates weren't great at keeping conversations hushed. Knowing this was a school dorm, and therefore likely had audio and video recording hardware, they regularly discussed their future evil plans and information freely, without any worry whatsoever.

"I tried to fight Nikos, but thanks to the blond idiot raising his hand up, I got stuck with him," Mercury complained. Cinder turned to him.

"Oh? Which 'blond idiot' do you mean?" she asked.

"That Faunus, the one from the docks. I don't get why you're so obsessed with him. He wasn't _that_ good," Emerald said, looking at the ceiling. Cinder smirked.

"And yet, he managed to take down an entire group of the White Fang with only his bare hands. Don't sell him short. What did you find out about him?"

Mercury spoke up again, "I got the feeling he tries to surprise his enemies when he fights. When I kicked at him, he used my own attack to fly into the air. Even after that, he pulled two other weapons, small knives, out from a pouch he wore."

"So, someone who 'fights dirty,' hm?" Cinder supposed. "I think that I'm beginning to like this boy already."

* * *

Though he probably could've gotten away with not doing it for a few years at least, Naruto felt like he needed to practice his chakra control once again. He had only used it a few times in this new world, most notably when Yang had almost caught him, and when he had followed Blake.

And so it was that Naruto decided to perch himself on top of Beacon Cliff, then slowly walk down, before turning around and going back up, repeating the process for over an hour. He was glad that chakra control was still second-nature to him. That wasn't something he wanted to have to re-learn.

" **You know, there are much more advanced methods of training yourself in chakra control. One such method is your Rasengan that you enjoy so much. However, another, one that you may be able to pull off, is the waterfall climbing exercise."**

' _Does that mean exactly what it sounds like?'_

" **Yes. You would be climbing a waterfall."**

' _I'll have to try that sometime.'_

Finishing his last climb to the top, Naruto turned, to look out over the forest. No matter how many times he looked at it, he was always reminded of home. Except for the monsters inside of it that would tear his flesh from his bones, and devour him entirely.

* * *

Friday, because of all the planning needed for both the dance and the missions on Monday, had several teams without classes. It was no exception for Teams RWBY and MDNT, who had a plan for the entirety of the day. Since Yang and Weiss would have to be finishing their planning, Ruby and Blake were coming with Team MDNT into Vale, to visit somewhere Ruby had wanted to go to since they had told her about it. Well, Blake would've gone, but she was 'busy.' Naruto had frowned when he heard that, since there wasn't anything she really could have been busy doing.

Now, however, Naruto was merrily talking to the young, peppy leader of Team RWBY, "Oh, you'll love it, Ruby. It's incredibly fun, and they've got great pizza as well."

"Ooh, I can't wait! I've never even been bowling before!" Ruby was very clearly using all of whatever willpower she had to keep from running off, all the way to the bowling lanes without them. Since it had been a few months since Team MDNT had come by, they had wanted to visit once again, since they had had a blast the first time round.

"Indeed, the pizza was wonderful. The bowling was also a good experience," Troy declared, matter-of-factly. Melissa glared back at Naruto.

"This time, I'm gonna win! You better watch out, Naruto, cause I'm about to show you how to bowl properly," she challenged. He held back a snicker.

"Didn't I get a perfect score last time?" she blushed slightly, and turned away with a huff. Ruby laughed.

Diana, following them by way of cartwheel, began to describe how good the pizza was in great detail, for some reason, "Oh, the cheese, so well cooked and prepared, spread out very evenly. Oh, it tasted so good, like a really well cooked bun. And the sauce-"

They arrived at Blazing Lanes shortly, which seemed to have seen a lot more business since they had come here last. It now had a well-polished sign out front, with the name of the place and the emblem of a bowling ball on fire streaking down a lane. The building itself looked much better kept as well, now having gleaming windows.

When they walked in, they could tell the inside was redone entirely. Except for the lanes themselves, everything was in a different position, from the restaurant area to the arcade. Ruby looked around with excitement, ready to bowl. They walked up to pay for a few hours of bowling, getting placed in the lane at the far end of the building.

Before they were able to actually bowl, Ruby insisted they get this wonderful pizza she had heard so much about. Naruto smiled as she tore into it, like her teeth had their own speed Semblance. They bought her her own pizza, with how fast she ate the first one.

"You guys were right!" she squealed. "This is the best pizza I have ever eaten!" She was getting more and more excited. Naruto, who had seen this happen before, tried to snap her out of it, by actually snapping in front of her face. Thankfully, she didn't pass out on them, and was able to actually bowl, rather than sleep through the entire time they had paid for.

Hours later, Naruto found himself subject to a slightly resentful glare from Melissa. "What?" he asked.

"I hate you, you know that?" she shot at him, lacking any real anger. He chuckled.

"You're just jealous cause I won again."

"Hmph."

Ruby looked back and forth between the two of them, "Wait, what?"

* * *

On Saturday, as with Friday, there were few classes. Of course, that was simply because it was a weekend. And so, Team RWBY was spending their day putting the finishing touches on the plans for the dance in the ballroom. Or at least, Yang and Weiss were. Blake was nowhere to be found, and Ruby had her chin resting on the table. Naruto sat next to her, since his teammates had once more decided to spend the day doing various activities on their own.

He, however, had nothing else to do, besides perhaps train. But he felt like spending some time trying to cheer up Ruby. She had been upset about Blake's attitude towards the dance.

"Um… Is it a sword that changes into a minigun?" Naruto asked as his twentieth question.

"Nope!" Ruby said, shaking her head. "It was a staff that turns into a cannon. I win!"

"Heh, heh. Yeah, you do," Naruto admitted. "Alright, let me think…"

As he sat back, looking up in thought, Weiss slammed down two cloth sheets onto the table, asking which looked better. Ruby stared at her, saying she thought they looked the same. Weiss stormed off.

"Alright, I got it!" Naruto exclaimed. As he did, a huge boom sounded behind him, making him jump. Yang had set down a massive speaker casually, apparently not caring how much noise it made when she did.

"So, have you picked out a dress yet?" Yang asked her little sister. Ruby looked up at her, a little upset.

"What's the point? Who cares about the-" Naruto cut across her.

"Don't you say you don't care about the dance. You're going, right along with Blake. So, go now and pick out a dress for tomorrow," he commanded. Yang raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, Whiskers. I didn't know you could act so seriously about anything. Besides maybe ramen," she joked. "But yeah, Ruby, don't worry about Blake. She'll be there." She looked over at her dance-planning partner. "Weiss! I thought we agreed: No doilies!"

Weiss pointed at the blonde accusingly, "If I don't get doilies, you don't get fog machines!"

As Yang was about to retort, the door closest to them opened, allowing through a certain monkey-tailed boy, and one with blue hair. "Your dance is gonna have fog machines?" Neptune asked, walking up to them.

For some reason Naruto didn't get, Weiss stood next to Neptune, smiling sweetly, "We were thinking about it."

Neptune nodded his head, "That's pretty cool…"

Sun ignored their conversation, "So, you ladies all excited for dress-up?" Naruto, with his head on its side on the table, turned to face his fellow Faunus.

"Yeah, definitely. Just wait 'til tomorrow," Naruto said, half-sarcastic. To be fair, Naruto could come to the dance as anything he wanted, including a girl. Might be a good prank, but he'd have to find some way afterwards to explain it. So, no. Scratch that idea.

Sun rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Shut it, Naruto." Weiss looked to Sun and Neptune, asking what they were planning on wearing. Sun pointed to himself, "Uh, this?"

Neptune shook his head, stepping forwards, and raised his hand, "Ignore him, for he knows not what he says."

"Hey, I may have moved to Mistral, but I grew up in Vacuo. It's not exactly a shirt-and-tie kind of place."

Yang deadpanned, "Yeah, we noticed."

Sun began to rub the back of his head nervously, asking what he considered an awkward question, "So... what does Blake think of all this? She still being all, ya know... Blake-y?"

"Obviously," Weiss muttered, crossing her arms in disapproval.

"I still can't think of a way to change her mind," Ruby said sadly, laying her head down.

Yang beat Naruto to responding this time, "Guys, trust me. Blake will be at the dance tomorrow." She began to walk out, leaving them wondering. Naruto watched her back for a moment before getting up to follow her. She left through the door Sun and Neptune had come through, while he was just behind her.

"Yang," Naruto called out, getting her attention. She turned around. "I need to ask a favor."

"What is it?" she questioned, intrigued.

"Leave Blake to me. Don't worry yourself over it," he requested. She frowned.

"But… Why?"

"I- She reminds me of someone I knew, a long time ago," he answered. "I'd rather she not end up like he did, so I want to help her out of this funk she's been in."

"Someone you knew? What happened to him?" Yang asked. Naruto sighed, looking down.

"I'd… rather not. I wasn't able to help him, and now I'll never be able to."

"Oh. Um- yeah, sure. She's all yours, Whiskers," Yang allowed, a little unsure, a little hopeful.

He smiled in gratitude, "Thanks, Yang."

* * *

As he expected, Naruto was able to find Blake, once again, in the library. He had no idea what she was doing here, but it appeared that she was using one of the many computers for some kind of research. He looked down at his hand as he walked in, shaking his head at Yang's idea.

When he got closer, he put the laser pointer away, clearing his throat to himself and preparing to speak to the troubled Faunus. With a deep breath, he tentatively approached the girl, keeping his presence unknown to her. Contrary to what they all thought, Naruto could actually be rather sneaky when he wanted to be.

Just behind her now, Naruto placed his left hand on her right shoulder. She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden presence, then turned and glared daggers up at him. He smiled in response, "Got a minute? I want to tell you something."

She growled, and turned back to her screen, "Go away, Naruto. I'm busy."

"Well, now. We both know that's a lie." She glared up at him again. "Blake, I just need a few minutes, no more than ten."

She groaned, "Fine. Let's go, then."

Naruto grinned, and followed Blake out of the library, up onto the same roof they used to always hang out on. Once there, she turned and looked at him expectantly. He, however, being dramatic, walked past her and stared out towards Vale.

"Blake, what I'm about to tell you… Never repeat it, to anyone. I don't want the others to hear this particular story."

"What do you mean? Why did you even want to talk?" she asked, anger clear in her tone. He turned to face her.

"I need your word, Blake," he asked of her. She didn't lighten up her glare at all, but she nodded anyways. "Thank you." He looked out to Vale again, beginning his tale. "Several years ago, I had a friend. He was talented, he was smart, and he was like a brother to me.

But he also had a dark past. He was a part of the legendary Uchiha Clan, a family from our village. They were both feared and respected across the entire land for their Sharingan, a kind of hereditary Semblance in their eyes that let them mimic everything another person did just by seeing it, or place people under illusions with a single look.

Power like that breeds corruption, though. To get even more powerful, to achieve a higher state of the Sharingan, my friend's brother, Itachi Uchiha, slaughtered the entire clan."

Blake's mouth fell open at this point, out of sheer disbelief. How could a man possibly stomach killing his entire family, just for power? But then she thought back to some of the people she had met, in her time under the White Fang, and she realized that it wasn't too outlandish.

"He only left Sasuke, my friend, alive, telling him to 'acquire the same eyes' as Itachi had. This higher form of the Sharingan was called the Mangekyou Sharingan, and was perhaps one of the most devastating abilities anyone could have. By looking into it, you could be put under an illusion so powerful, that it makes your brain think you're actually being tortured for days and weeks on end."

Hearing this, Blake wondered how anyone could possibly have stopped someone with it. If anyone of this clan could have these eyes, then how could they ever be defeated?

"Itachi left the village, telling Sasuke to nurture his hatred, to find and kill him one day in hatred and revenge. He also told him how to obtain the Mangekyou. It was a secret known only to a few in the clan. To awaken the Mangekyou, you had to kill someone precious to you."

No wonder not everyone had it. How could an entire clan be able to survive if they killed their friends just for power?

"One day, Sasuke met Itachi again. He tried to battle him, to kill him, but Itachi was far too strong for him. Sasuke was left defeated, thinking he needed more power. He became consumed by his hatred, by his greed, by his desire to kill Itachi. He left the village, seeking power from someone who had betrayed the village long ago.

I was on a team sent to stop Sasuke. I fought him for so long, only to be beaten in the end, unable to save my friend from his lust for revenge and power. What I'm trying to say, Blake, is that I don't want to see that happen again. But with how much you hate the White Fang, how much you've been fixated on them, I'm scared of it happening to you."

He sighed, looking over the edge again, "I don't want to lose you, Blake. That's why I keep helping you, why I'll never stop."

All Blake could do was stare, with her mouth slightly open, some unknown emotion on her face. Naruto turned, giving her a weak smile, "So, Neko-chan, please, just lighten up on this investigation. You don't have to stop it, not if you don't want to. But please, remember that you have friends all around you, always willing to help you, no matter what."

She didn't know what to say. She didn't have any response at all, not to a story like that, and certainly not to Naruto's reasons for helping her. He walked up next to her, putting his arm around her shoulder, "Your team is worried about you, Blake. I'm supposed to ask you to go to the dance, but, if you want, we could spend tomorrow night looking more into the White Fang. Just don't tell Ruby I said that." He chuckled lightly. "Otherwise, she'll do that thing where she pouts at me for the next few weeks."

Blake, beginning to be able to think again, turned to Naruto, "I- I-" She stopped, breathing in. "I would love to go to the dance with you, Naruto."

His eyes bulged slightly, then he laughed to himself, "Yeah, I guess I did accidentally ask you out, huh?"

* * *

 **Well, that's another chapter done.**

 **Ah, the dance. Such grand plans, so long in the making. And I'm fairly certain I hate the way this chapter ended. Not, you know, the 'Naruto-tells-a-story' part, just the actual way it ended. As in, the last line or two.**

 **For this chapter, I did something I had never done before: I rewrote the entire thing. Twice. Both times before this one, I just didn't like the way it turned out. Even now, I'm a little unhappy with it. I felt like it had too much canon scenes, with too little divergence. Something I want to get away from doing too much is writing entire scenes just as they happen in the anime.**

 **That's not to say I won't still do it, however. If Naruto or his team isn't present, there usually isn't any reason why it would be different.**

 **I'd like to slow the pace of this story just a little bit. If you noticed, the last two chapters of this story, including this one, have covered, in total, two-and-a-half chapters from the anime. Two-and-a-half episodes, for those of you not in the know.**

 **I don't want to end up reaching the Fall of Beacon by, say, Chapter 12, or maybe even 15, so I'm going to try a few different things to buffer it. Like having far too many scenes of Naruto training.**

 **One last thing. I was talking with a friend, asking him to give me a ship name for Naruto and Blake. So, we started brainstorming. His first answer was 'ninja's of love,' but that's Ren and Blake.**

 **The two I like best that we came up with were 'Cat-o-Nine-Tails,' which was mine, and 'From Shadow (Clones),' which was his. Which do you like more, eh?**

 **Until Chapter 9!**


	9. Chapter 9: The Dance

**Well, good new for you all.**

 **I don't have Chapter 8 of A Lack of Faith finished this week, so to compensate, here's another chapter of this. I've actually begun to write these in advance of updating the story, because the plan going forward is to upload on Wednesday and Saturday. If I have a chapter ready, that is. In fact, I'm actually almost done with Chapter 11 by the time you'll be reading this...**

 **Nope, scratch that. I'm was actually finished with it by the time this went up.**

 **Expect 2 new chapters of A Lack of Faith two weeks from now.**

 **So, the more I write this, the more I think the biggest difference is that Fukasaku and Naruto started Frog Kata before Naruto had perfected Sage Mode. So that's what I'm going with. Naruto didn't perfect it, and got paranoid.**

 **Also, fair warning, I'm taking descriptions from the RWBY Wiki again. I don't know nearly enough about the intricacies of dresses to try and describe them.**

 **I don't own Naruto or RWBY. I don't have anything special this time…**

* * *

Chapter 9: The Dance

After two rather awkward experiences, Naruto Uzumaki was fairly certain he was either dreaming or hallucinating. Somewhat fortunately, it was neither. The first had been mostly pleasant, though the roundabout way in which he had asked Blake to the dance certainly left just a little to be desired.

It wasn't that he regretted it, far from it. He simply felt he could have done it better. But it was the second that made him question his sanity, and whether or not he was dreaming. As he walked back to his dorm room to grab a little money that he had left over from the docks, so that he could go and actually buy a suit, he was passed in the hallway by Jaune and Ren, the latter of whom was wearing naught but a towel.

Shaking his head a little, Naruto continued on to his room. Searching a little, he found his money was with his chokutō. Grabbing both, he made his way out of the school, down to the airship docks.

"Hey! Wait up, Whiskers!" Naruto turned, seeing the familiar mane of blonde hair. He prepared himself for the inevitable onslaught of questions from her, or perhaps some form of approval for asking out Blake.

"So…" she began, in that same strange tone she used on occasion. "You and Blake, huh? I was just joking about that, ya know. Got to say, Whiskers, never pegged you as the type for sassy girls."

He looked at her questioningly, "Sassy?"

"Yeah. Ya know, _catty_ ," Yang joked. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Alright, that one was okay."

She shook her head, "No, no it wasn't. In fact I'd even call it-"

"If you say anything involving a catastrophe, I'm going to throw you over the cliff," Naruto waited. She didn't continue.

"So, where are you going, anyways?" she asked, after a long silence.

"Vale. I haven't actually bought, nor rented, a suit yet. Just a little important."

"Eh. I mean, Sun's going in his normal clothes. 20 Lien says he just buttons his shirt," Yang challenged. Naruto grinned.

"You're on."

Yang grinned back, "Good to hear, Whiskers. Ya know, I thought it would be Sun that Blake went with. I mean, he asked her out just after class the other day."

"He did?" Naruto asked, a little in disbelief. "I didn't know that. Huh. Now I feel a little bad."

She waved off his concern, "Ah, don't be. Blake's the one who decided on you over him. Besides, those abs look nice." She began to… purr, almost. Naruto felt confused. "So, mind if I go to Vale with you? We finished up the dance plans, so I've got nothing to do."

He gestured for her to follow him onto the airship going to Vale. They boarded, sitting down near where they had entered. Naruto turned to her, "So, what about Ruby? Is she more cheery now, like she normally is?"

"Yeah, she's great. You might end up getting a plate of cookies from her, in fact. And she doesn't do that for anyone but people she really likes," Yang answered. "Oh, yeah. Why _do_ you care so much, anyways?"

He shrugged, "Well, I just try to help anyone I can. But also, she's so young and innocent. Seeing her sad… It just reminds me how depressing my old life was."

"Aren't you only a year older than her? What do you mean young?"

"Two years, now. But don't make any mistake; I'm no child by any means. I've stared down death more than my fair share of times, back in my old village."

Yang looked both confused and concerned as she asked, "What do you mean? You've 'stared down death?' How?"

"Well, the smaller villages around ours would come to us with missions on occasion. We would accept, delegating the missions to teams suited for them. Of course, people would lie about what missions would entail, and lead to the people on the team being in more danger than they were prepared for," Naruto explained, thinking specifically of the Land of Waves.

"And people got away with that?"

"Not often, no. Each team had a leader who was supposed to end the mission the moment it escalated."

"Huh."

Yang was silent for the rest of the time traveling to Vale, something uncharacteristic of her. Naruto sat with his eyes closed, curious about something. As it turned out, he could gather Natural Energy even if he was moving, as long as he wasn't the one moving himself. In other words, he could gather the energy while on vehicles. How convenient.

Vale was abuzz with activity. Some were like Naruto, those who had held off on buying a suit for the dance. Others were people enjoying their day off from classes. The rest were normal people. Naruto and Yang got off the airship, being passed by a group of people headed back to Beacon. It made sense, since the sun was beginning to dip below the distant mountains.

Luckily for Naruto, who had no idea where any stores were beyond the weapon shop, he was able to follow the horde of under-prepared people on their way to getting a suit of their own. In fact, there was even a line a little ways out of the store. Eventually, Naruto was able to get in and out, now clutching to himself an orange kimono, something Yang questioned.

"This is what guys wore during formal occasions, back where I'm from. It's called a kimono. Might as well at least try to maintain my culture."

"No, not that. Why does this place even sell a… kimono, you said?" Yang asked, looking at the storefront.

Naruto shrugged once again, "I don't know. Maybe they know a little about other places in the world."

"More importantly," Yang said, turning to face him. "Why is it orange?"

"Why not? It's a great color."

"Well, at least Blake will have no trouble finding you," Yang reasoned.

* * *

By the time Yang and Naruto got back to Beacon, it was dark out. The moon wasn't quite above the mountains yet, but it was visible, mostly. Yang bid Naruto farewell, going off saying she needed to make sure the fog machines weren't being tampered with by Weiss.

Naruto began to walk back his dorm, still holding his kimono in its plastic covering. He made a note to himself to remember to attach the Uzumaki crest to his arm tomorrow night. On his way back to the room, he passed by the fountain, finding Diana was staring at the water, presumably at her own reflection.

"Hey, Diana," he called out to her. She looked up, smiling as always.

"Hello, friend!" she returned.

"So, did you ask Troy to the dance, or did he ask you?" Naruto was curious. He felt like one of the two had to have happened.

"Neither! Although, I may have just forgotten. Oh, well. I can ask him now!" She said, scurrying off to the dorms. Naruto chuckled to himself, shaking his head at Diana's usual antics. He began to follow her, back to their dorm room.

There, he found Troy wide eyed, blinking quickly in front of Diana. Melissa was laughing, but looked at the door when it opened. Seeing who it was, she stopped immediately, starting to ask him something, "So, you and Blake are going to the dance?"

He nodded, "Yeah. I kind of… accidentally asked her."

She saw what he was holding. "What is- Is that a suit, or a dress?" She asked, laughing a little.

Naruto got defensive, "It's formal wear from my village! It's not a dress. It's called a kimono."

"So, why does it look like a dress?"

"It. Doesn't. It's meant to be regal."

"Well, why is it orange? Why not black?" Melissa asked.

"'Cause orange is the best color," Naruto answered. Melissa shook her head.

"You're weird, Naruto."

"Meh," Naruto ignored her, walking over to his bed, hanging the kimono up for tomorrow. Melissa laid back down, laughing to herself. Naruto turned to face Troy as he followed Melissa's example. "You know, Troy, she's not asking you romantically. She just thinks it would be fun to dance."

Troy stared back at Naruto, as Diana nodded once, "Yep!"

* * *

" _Feel Pain. Contemplate Pain. Accept Pain. Know Pain. Feel Pain, Accept Pain, and Know Pain. Those who do not know Pain will never understand true peace! SHINRA TENSEI!"_

 _A man. A village. He flew above. A mountain, with five faces. Destruction. A crater. The man left._

 _Another mountain. A secluded village. Another massacre. The man. He killed another one._

" _Where is he?"_

 _A toad, old and decaying. Two small corpses at his feet. Anger. A sense of failure._

 _The scene changed. There was a statue. It had nine eyes. It changed, becoming a colossal monster. The world, torn apart._

 _Another world. This one different. The monster, tearing through a village. Fireballs shot at it. A man on top. He laughed. Water doused it. More laughter. Lighting. No effect. Death._

 _So much death._

* * *

Naruto awoke, sitting upright in an instant. He held onto the small yelp that was about to escape his mouth. "It was just a dream. Just a dream," he mumbled to himself. He sighed. He hadn't had such a dream in several months, but all of a sudden one crops up. Great.

He looked about, realizing he'd been asleep for only about an hour. The room was still dark, even more so now, without Troy's light on. He tried to think back to the dream, but it was already murky. Something about a monster was all he could make out.

Perhaps this was something the fox would know about. Naruto delved into his mind, needing to ask the fox, "Kyūbi! What was that monster in my dream?"

" **I'm unsure. It could be a few things, but none of them make sense, especially not with you here."**

"What do you mean?"

" **By its appearance, it looked to be something from an ancient era. But without you in your own accursed world, it could never be reborn."**

"What is it?"

" **Even if I described it to you, you wouldn't ever be able to comprehend it. Not without facing it."**

"What is it called?"

" **That, Kit, is not something I will tell you."**

"Fine."

Naruto left his mindscape, laying back down, but staring up at the ceiling in thought. A monster from the ancient era, huh? What was something like that doing in a dream? He wasn't sure when he managed to fall back to sleep, but after what seemed like seconds, he woke again, this time in the sun-lit dorm.

He sat up, looking around at his teammate's beds. Each of them were empty, which probably meant his team was out doing their regular things. But, to his surprise, he found a note on the desk.

He read it aloud to himself, "Naruto. Meet us in the library." He set it down, "Hm. Weird. Ah, well." Grabbing his jacket and haori, he left the room, headed for the library. On the way, he could have sworn he heard hissing from Team RWBY's room, but he decided it would probably be best to ignore it.

In the library, he searched through the rows quickly before spotting his team sat around some of the computers. "Hey guys," Naruto said, walking up. They turned to face him.

"Yo," Troy responded, in such a perfect mimicry of Kakashi-sensei's voice that Naruto did a brief double take.

"HI!" Diana returned excitedly. Melissa nodded at Naruto, greeting him silently.

"So, why are we here, anyway?" Naruto queried.

"We need to talk about the kind of mission we want to take on Monday," Troy replied.

"Wait, so why couldn't we do that in our dorm?"

"Diana wanted to be in here. And so, here we are," Melissa said, not batting an eye. Diana smiled innocently.

Troy spoke up, apparently continuing the conversation from before, "I think a search and destroy would be best. It would give us the best chance to train."

"No, I think it would be border defense," Melissa countered.

"Actually, Melissa, I'm going to have to go with Troy on this one. I like the sound of search and destroy," Naruto backed up the suit-wearing member of MDNT. Diana, obviously, was supporting Troy, making it three-on-one.

Melissa rolled her eyes, "Yeah, fine."

"So, that's that. What else are we doing?" Naruto asked.

"Well, Diana said she wanted to play against Troy in chess."

Naruto stared at the rainbow girl, "Really? You play chess?"

"Yep!" she replied joyfully.

* * *

While Team MDNT enjoyed Troy losing in chess, Team RWBY were all going over the upcoming night, discussing various things. At the moment, Yang was teasing Blake, the only person on the team who actually had a date. Weiss had been rebuked by Neptune, though she told her teammates she hadn't asked or accepted anyone, since she was so busy. Yang wasn't one to get stuck in a steady relationship, and Ruby was… Well, being Ruby. She was more about fighting and killing monsters.

"Now, Yang, I removed your fog machines from the ballroom this morning. I decided we really don't need them," Weiss told the blonde, much to her ire.

"What? But I thought we agreed! Didn't you want them because Neptune thought they would be cool?" Yang nearly yelled. Weiss shrugged.

"Well, I changed my mind. I decided they would be unfit for a formal dance."

Ruby spoke up, asking her sister where she had gone for all of yesterday afternoon. "Oh, nowhere. Whiskers was headed to Vale, and I tagged along," she answered.

"Wait, why was Naruto going to Vale?" Blake asked, confused.

"He hadn't actually planned on going to the dance, see. He needed formal wear," Yang replied.

Blake tried to create the image in her head of Naruto in a black-and-white suit, but couldn't. Not even having seen him in a Beacon uniform. She honestly couldn't see Naruto wearing a suit for anything, ever.

"I can't see Naruto wearing a suit," Weiss said exactly what Blake was thinking. For some reason the Faunus didn't get, Yang grinned mischievously.

"Yeah, me neither," said the blonde.

Weiss cocked her head, "Wait, but you just said-"

"No, I said formal wear."

"But don't they mean the same thing?" Weiss asked. Yang shook her head. "Why am I somehow not surprised? So what is he wearing, then?"

Yang shook her head, "It'll be a surprise. But, please, try not to laugh too hard. I think he's a little touchy about it."

"Wait, why?"

"Oh, no reason," Yang answered, looking sideways, avoiding eye contact. She wasn't even sure what the kimono would look like on Naruto, but chances were it would look hilarious.

"You know, that worries me a little," Weiss remarked.

* * *

Most people may prefer to spend the entire day before a dance getting ready for it, but Naruto was not, in fact, most people. Quite the opposite, in fact. So instead, with, he estimated, 6 hours left before he would need to start getting ready to be able to make it on time, Naruto found himself once again on top of Beacon's dorms, where he was finally beginning to get the hang of Sage Mode. It wasn't perfect by any means, but he was able to enter and maintain it even on Beacon's grounds.

This obviously excited him, since it meant he was close to having back his full abilities. Not that he was weak without them, far from it. In this world, he could probably beat almost anyone. He thought back to some of his first experiences here, and suddenly felt like he wanted to fight Qrow again. He wasn't sure what had happened last time, but he remembered feeling clumsy.

Mysteries for another time. For now, he was focusing on the presence approaching from behind, a man who was walking up the stairs. He was new to the whole 'chakra sensing' thing, or, in this case, 'Aura sensing,' so he wasn't sure who it was. He released his Sage chakra, returning to normal before the man arrived. He kept staring out at the mountains and at Vale, until the door opened behind him.

Naruto turned to face the man, seeing it was the headmaster. He bowed his head a little, "My apologies, but I sensed an immense amount of energy coming from this rooftop. I believed it merited further investigation. Would you mind if I asked you what it was?"

Naruto shrugged, preparing to lie his way through this, "Oh, just something I'm working on. I need a lot of work on it before it'll be ready, though." Ozpin nodded, though Naruto was unsure as to whether or not he was actually convinced.

"Well, I'm impressed, certainly. How long would you say?" Ozpin asked in a curious voice, but Naruto felt like there was something else concealed underneath it.

"Oh, a few years, at best."

"I see. Apologies once again. I shall leave you to your practice."

He left, and Naruto let out a sigh. Even he could tell the headmaster wasn't entirely convinced. He was evidently fluent in the verse of lying and deception. He really would make a great shinobi, even if this world didn't have any.

Naruto shook himself out of his thoughts, turned back to Vale, and sat down, meditating once more.

' _Less this time. Aaaaand… good.'_

He took in too much once again. He acquired the same webbed hands and warty features as just a moment ago, frowning as he did.

' _Damn it. Even less, I guess.'_

Before he released his Sage Mode, he felt another presence approaching him. This one was smaller, and stopped briefly when they passed Ozpin. Chances were, it was a student. A few moments later, after he reverted to normal once again, he was proven right when the door opened, revealing Ruby to be standing behind it.

"Naruto?" she asked meekly, for some reason.

"Yeah, Ruby?" he asked, looking over his shoulder to her. She walked up, sitting down next to him.

"I… I wanted to say thank you. I'm so glad you got Blake to go to the dance!" her tone shifted as she spoke, going from gratuitous to excited. He smiled warmly at the young girl. "Thanks, Naruto."

She leaned over, giving him an appreciative hug. He returned it, in a very brotherly way, "Don't mention it, Ruby. Just helping out."

The embrace ended, and Naruto grinned, "How 'bout a race?"

* * *

"What are- Why are you panting, Ruby?" Yang asked her sister, as she stumbled back in. The young huntress-in-training fell face forward onto the bed, turning her head to the side once she did.

"Naruto."

"What were you doing with Naruto that could be so tiring?" Weiss asked from over by the closet, where she was selecting a dress.

"Racing. He's faster than I thought. But, I still won!" she said exhaustedly, giving a shaky thumbs up. Then she collapsed completely, falling asleep. Yang shook her awake, telling her they needed to start getting ready.

She complained, but she stood up anyways. With an hour before the dance started, Yang left with Weiss, since they needed to make sure everything was in order. Blake left soon as well, finishing her preparations.

Ruby, meanwhile, groaned at the last part of her outfit. She had no problem with the dress, in fact she rather liked it. It was a short, red, sleeveless dress with a thick black sash around the waist and black edging at the bottom. The bodice of the dress was split vertically to the sash and laced with black lacing. The yoke of the dress is translucent mesh with an opaque collar and hem, as well as opaque lines connecting the collar to her shoulders.

What she had a problem with was the shoes. They weren't tall heels, but they were tall enough to be inconvenient. As she tried to walk out the door in them, she could already tell she wasn't going to enjoy walking around tonight. Oh, well. At least she wouldn't have to do any fighting.

* * *

As he predicted, Naruto had more than enough time to get himself ready. Since he had only four parts to his entire ensemble, he felt it shouldn't take him more than a few minutes. While he wasn't wrong, between the white hakama and the- strangely- bandages around his midsection, he spent ten minutes getting to the last layer. It was the orange part, though, so Naruto felt it was worth it. The obi was a very dark green. And of course, he had basic sandals on.

Finishing dressing, Naruto glanced at himself in the mirror. He felt like something was missing. He reached into his pile of clothes, and pulled out the First Hokage's necklace, placing it around his neck. He looked once again in the mirror, and thought he looked pretty good. Besides, no one else would get he was dressed formally, so their faces might be worth it.

"Alright…" he muttered to himself. "Tonight's a good night. Let's do this."

As Naruto turned to the door, Troy walked through, but stopped when he saw Naruto. He gave a curt nod, though Naruto was fairly certain he found the sight hilarious. Naruto raised his hand in greeting, before walking out.

"Right, where's Blake?" he asked himself, looking up and down the halls. As expected, he didn't see her. He began to walk down the hallway towards her dorm, to see if she was there, when Ruby stumbled out of the room, wobbling on her heels. Naruto jogged over to her, letting her lean on him so she wouldn't fall over.

"Thanks, Nar-" she stopped suddenly, looking at him. Her face contorted into one that was trying very hard not to laugh. She failed. After several minutes, as they were leaving the dorm building, she managed to stop herself. "What- is- that?" she managed. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"It's called a kimono. It's formal wear in my village," Naruto explained. Ruby's laughter was petering out, but she at least managed to breathe in. They began to make their way over to the ballroom. Shortly, Naruto heard more laughter, this time from behind them.

"Naruto, what are you wearing?" asked a chuckling Blake. "Why are you wearing a dress?"

"It's not! It's from my village!" Naruto complained. Blake raised an eyebrow. Only then did Naruto notice what she was wearing. She wore short, purple, asymmetrical, halter neck dress that was split up the right side and has a black collar. A translucent black mesh covered her shoulders, décolletage and back, and decorative black swirls covered the left side of the dress and continued up the left strap. Like with Ruby, she wore black heels, though she didn't seem to be having trouble with them, as expected from a girl who fights in them.

"Wow… You look… beautiful, Blake," Naruto had trouble even getting that out. The look was such a turnaround from what she had been like recently, and it accentuated her natural beauty well.

The raven-haired beauty blushed down to her roots, evidently not getting such compliments often. To recover herself, she elected to tease Naruto lightly, "So, I noticed Ruby was hanging off of you… Got to say, Naruto, I didn't think you were that kind of person."

He looked confused, tilting his head slightly, "What? I was helping her walk. She was stumbling around in her heels, so I let her use me for support while she walked."

Blake rolled her eyes, smiling at her date for the night. He was rather oblivious. Ruby stepped away, "Thanks, Naruto! I'll walk from here, though!" And with that, the silver-eyed girl walked away, tripping every so often as she did.

Naruto turned back to face Blake, offering his arm. She took it, locking her arm through hers. They walked together, talking with one another, with Blake asking about the kimono, "So, why are you wearing a dress?"

"It's not a dress, like I said. It's called a kimono. Surely you've heard of them before, with how much you read?" Naruto asked.

Blake shook her head, "No, I haven't. Though, I've read something that sounds familiar to that language you use sometimes."

He looked over in mild interest, "Really? Where did they come from?"

"They were written in a part of Anima, near Mistral. They've got a history full of different cultures, though. So it's no surprise they have a few languages. I always just thought it was made up."

"What was the book called?" he asked. Her eyes went wide for only a moment.

"I- I don't remember. Something about ninjas," Blake nervously answered. Naruto chuckled. "What?"

"Ninjas, huh?" he asked, looking sideways at her.

She ignored him, staying silent until they reached the ballroom. There, they found Yang stood at a podium in front of the door inside. She let out a mocking squeal when they entered, "Oooh, you two look so cute together!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, smile on his face. Yang bid them a good time, then turned her attention to the people still arriving. Blake and Naruto went over to the side of the dance floor, where Ruby was stood awkwardly.

"Hey, you two," she greeted. They all stood around for a bit, before Naruto offered to take Blake out onto the dance floor. They walked off, beginning to dance. Yang and Weiss came over to where Ruby was stood, watching the pair. Naruto, somehow, was excellent at a slow dance. Not the kind of thing you expect from a guy who usually moves so fast Ruby had to narrate what he was doing.

"You know, they make a good pair," Yang exclaimed suddenly. Ruby and Weiss turned to look at her. "Well, just look at them! The blond and the black!"

Weiss raised an eyebrow, "Blond and black?"

"Shut up," Yang's dismissal lacked any real anger, as Ruby giggled at her teammates.

"So, what do we do now?" She asked, looking between the two.

"Just have fun!" Yang answered, walking away, back to her podium. She was glad to see her partner enjoying herself so much. When Naruto had asked her to let him talk to her, she had been a little hesitant, she would admit. Blake had seemed upset at Naruto for a few days after the investigation, all because he showed up to help.

Yang wasn't even sure how he managed to follow them. To know where they were headed, he would have had to have been on the airship… with… them. But if the only other person there was that arrogant-looking boy…

Yang turned back to Naruto, narrowing her eyes a little. She'd have to ask him about that later. Although, she reasoned, knowing Naruto, he might have just been on top of the airship. She shrugged to herself, stood at her podium once more. The door opened, and she gave a cheery greeting to the pair that walked through the door, "You guys are just in time!"

Through the door came Mercury, dressed in a three-piece suit trimmed with yellow, and Emerald, wearing a simple green dress. Mercury spoke for them, "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

* * *

As the night progressed, the dance continued in a very calm, normal fashion. People were, as expected, dancing, or they were sitting about, talking with friends, or even just stood above, watching the dancers. At one point, General Ironwood could even be seen dancing with Goodwitch. It was a little frightening to see two rather strict people dancing with one another.

Jaune sallied up next to Ruby, "I see you're hiding out at the punch bowl, too."

Not turning, she dryly said, "Yep."

Tilting his glass to her, Jaune proposed, "To the socially awkward."

Ruby giggled a little, clinking her glass against his. "Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss," she said, having been there when Weiss slammed the door in his face.

"Ah, it's fine," Jaune replied, not really paying attention. "Neptune's pretty cool. I get why she went with him."

Ruby looked confused, as she asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, come on. Not many people can pull off blue hair," Jaune explained, drinking his punch after he finished.

"No, I mean, Weiss came to the dance alone."

Jaune choked a little on his punch "Uh, what?" he looked over at Weiss, who seemed to be fussing over a single flower. She failed, looking down.

"Yeah, she said that she had too much to focus on to worry about boys."

Jaune looked over to where Neptune sat, looking around awkwardly, while Sun sat, arms crossed, looking just a tiny bit bitter, next to him. He growled in anger, "Hold my punch."

He handed Ruby his glass, and walked off over to the two. No sooner had he walked away than Ruby took a large drink from his punch. She waited for a bit, but when he didn't come back, she wandered off, eventually going up to the balcony, next to her sister.

"You know," Yang began. "I think we really needed this."

Ruby looked out over the ballroom, like her sister was doing, just watching each pair. Naruto and Blake were sitting off to the side at the moment, with Naruto apparently telling a story, as he moved his arms enthusiastically, providing effect.

She also saw Penny. The girl was dancing alone, with two Atlas soldiers guarding her. It seemed like her dancing was infectious, as one of the soldiers began tapping his foot in rhythm. The silver-eyed leader turned back to Yang, "Yeah, and you did a great job planning it, too!"

The blonde reached over, pulling Ruby into a crushing one-armed hug, "Aw, thanks! It wasn't all me, though. Weiss did a lot, too." The sisters looked over to where Weiss was. As they did, they saw Neptune walk up next to her, beginning a conversation.

Yang sighed lightly, "Tomorrow it's back to work…"

"I'm sure we can handle whatever gets thrown at us," Ruby answered. As she did, the two heard fits of laughter from the floor below. They looked down. "Except for that."

Naruto looked over at the source of the laughter, and saw Jaune wearing a white dress. Blake seemed like she was about to say something, but Naruto held up his hand, "It's. A. Kimono."

She giggled to herself. After a brief conversation, Jaune and Pyrrha moved over to an empty part of the dance floor, followed by Ren and Nora. As the two Faunus watched, all four of them began to dance, completely in sync, to the next song that came on.

"Wait, so… did they know this would happen?" Naruto asked, bewildered. "Did they know the future?"

Blake began to laugh again at her date's confusion. Naruto felt this was a serious problem, however. Not a negative one, but one that was worth solving. Kakashi-sensei had always said he could see the future with his eye, but Naruto was _fairly_ certain that was a lie. Besides, they didn't have any Sharingan. At least, Naruto had never seen any of them with the black-tomoe pattern.

A brief thought flashed through his head of Jaune shooting off a fireball. He shuddered a little, now picturing Jaune fighting against the Akatsuki.

"Naruto, you are one of the goofiest people I have ever met, you know that?" Blake said, facing him. "How does that tall tale of yours end?"

Naruto turned to Blake. "Oh, yeah. And believe me, every word of this is true," He answered, nodding his head back and forth. "So there I was, dozens of clones, all facing Ebisu-sensei…"

* * *

Ruby, while she enjoyed seeing all the fun her friends were having, grew bored of the dance rather quickly. It only hurt its case more that she had to wear the heels the entire time. Damned torture devices.

As she left, she noticed something in the distance. It was a little difficult to make out, with the outfit she seemed to be wearing and how dark it was, but it looked like a woman running across the rooftops in the distance. Ruby narrowed her eyes at the sight.

And so, being the logical girl she is, Ruby decided the best course of action would be to follow the strangely dressed woman, without even taking off the heels she could barely walk in.

* * *

"I don't believe you. Say it's true all you want, but I don't," Blake was saying, laughing. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Look, you don't know what ninja were like in my village."

"I still don't believe you," Blake replied. "That's a whole different level of perverted."

"Hmph. Doubting my talent, I see?" Naruto questioned, in a booming voice, like the kind you'd expect a narrator to have. Blake laughed even harder than before.

"You know, I'm glad I agreed to come with you," she said, a smile across her face. As they kept talking, Yang sat down next to Blake.

"So-ooo, how are the lovebirds doing?" she asked teasingly. "Planning your wedding yet?"

Blake blushed, and Naruto laughed, "No, not yet, blondie."

"Ay! Watch yourself, Whiskers!"

"Never gonna happen. I shall continue to be sarcastic until the day I die!" he exclaimed. "Why are you over here, anyways?"

She shrugged, "I'm not really into the whole 'dating' thing. Who needs one man? No offense, of course."

"Eh."

"Hey, where'd Ruby go?" Naruto asked, looking around, but not seeing any red except for Pyrrha. "I can't see her anywhere. Did she leave early?"

Yang looked around, frowning, "Huh. I didn't even notice. Oh, well. I'll ask her later."

"Naruto, tell her what you told me, about that Ebisu guy," Blake cut in, laughing over the memory.

"Right! So, Yang, it all started when I went to get my picture taken…"

Nearby, given the task of paying attention to the door, to watch anyone leaving, Mercury and Emerald warned Cinder of the General. A second part of their task, however, was to keep an eye on the Faunus Cinder so desperately wanted. They had no idea why she was so interested in him, but she insisted they pay close attention to him in particular.

He was only telling some kind of stories, tales he claimed were true, but were all outlandish. He honestly just seemed like a goofy teenager. But, still, Cinder insisted. Emerald, at one point, found Mercury chuckling.

"What are you on about?"

"Oh, not much. Kid's got style, though," Mercury answered, having heard Naruto's story about Ebisu.

* * *

Ruby stepped out of the elevator, holding her scythe, and calling out, "Hello?" She stumbled in her shoes. "Is anyone there? Hello?"

Cinder smirked, rising out of her hiding place, and stepping towards Ruby, who seemed to get a little hostile, "Excuse me? You know, it's not a masquerade party, so why don't you take off that-"

Not waiting for her to start, Cinder used a container of ice Dust to create a number of shards of ice in front of her. She paused for only a moment, then sent the shards flying at Ruby. Ruby's eyes shot wide open, and she spun her scythe in a circle to block the ice. As she pulled out of the spin, she aimed the end of the barrel at Cinder.

She fired multiple times, but each time her shot was blocked by some kind of arcane energy from the woman, whose clothing lit up, before she spun backwards, pulling two blades out of a fiery wave. They seemed to be glass. Ruby ripped her scythe out of the ground, tripping for a second, before she placed it behind her, firing once to propel herself towards the black-clad woman, bringing her scythe down.

The woman flipped backwards, jumping into air, and connecting her swords into a bow. Three arrows formed, and she fired them at the small girl. Ruby stumbled backwards clumsily, trying to regain her balance. She stabbed her scythe in the ground to provide support.

The woman looked up at her, still smirking. But the smirk faded as the elevator door opened once again, and she saw who it was. Ruby turned, seeing Ironwood behind her. She turned back to the woman, grinning, only to see she had disappeared.

Cinder decided it would be best to retreat, to avoid the trouble of fighting the General. Walking briskly, she changed her outfit from a skintight leather suit to a flowing black dress, with black opera gloves on her arms. She also abandoned her mask, leaving it on the ground.

She sauntered into the ballroom, up behind her green-haired subordinate, "Oh, may I cut in?"

Emerald stepped to the side, gesturing to Mercury, "Of course." She left as Cinder began to dance with Mercury, in order to throw of the soldiers she knew to be following her.

Mercury began to make discreet conversation, "And how's your night been?"

"Mmm... a little more exciting than expected," Cinder answered.

"Should we be worried?"

Cinder scoffed, "Hardly... They'll be scratching their heads long after we finished what we came here for."

"So then what now?" Mercury asked.

"Enjoy the rest of the night. After all, it is a party."

* * *

" **You know the difference between a ninja and a genius, Kit?"**

' _Uh… One's sneaky?"_

" **No. A ninja has immense power, a cunning intellect, and enough stealth to out-wit a god. A genius puts a ninja to shame in all of these respects."**

' _What are you talking about?"_

" **Keep an eye on that raven haired vixen, dancing with the gray haired one.**

' _Is she trouble?'_

" **She could be."**

Naruto looked over, and saw a woman dancing with the guy he had fought the other day. Mercury, he was pretty sure. For the fox to be concerned over her, something must be off. Especially since he said she could put a ninja to shame.

"Naruto? Are you alright?" Blake asked, waving her hand in front of her date's face. Naruto blinked, shook his head, and turned to her.

"Sorry, what? Got lost in thought for a moment." Blake shook her head in amusement.

"I asked about your teacher. I think you called him Kakashi-sensei? What was he like?"

Naruto closed his eyes, thinking. He open them, getting an idea. "Well, these were the first words he ever spoke to us, and how he introduced himself. He said 'My name is Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future? Hm, never really thought about it. As for my hobbies… well, I have lots of hobbies,'" he recalled.

Blake stared. "Wait, _that_ was how he introduced himself?" she asked incredulously.

"Well, the actual first words he said to us were 'I hate you all,' but yeah, that was how we met our sensei," Naruto fondly remembered. "So, what about you, Blake? What's your family like?"

She looked down a little, with something in-between shame and pride on her face, "Well, my father… he was the last leader of the White Fang, until five years ago." She waited, but Naruto didn't respond. "My mom, well, she's a cat Faunus, like me. They both live in Menagerie."

"Five years ago, huh? Wasn't that when all the ideals changed for the White Fang?" Naruto inquired. Blake nodded. "So, your dad was a good leader, right? It's not his fault that the White Fang is so violent nowadays."

"You always look at people in the best way, don't you?"

"Eh, not always. Only people I know or who know people I know." Naruto though about some of the people he had met in his life, from Gatō to Orochimaru. Basically, all the evil people he had met. He had only ever seen them as scum who needed to be gotten rid of. They were in the way of peace in the ninja world, always causing harm and hate amongst those they attacked.

"So, were all of the huntsmen in your village like your teacher?"

"Uh, no. But I'm pretty sure that's a good thing. I don't think we could take anymore of Kakashi-sensei," Naruto claimed, thinking about how his teacher would read porn in public. He had conveniently forgotten to include that in the description of Kakashi-sensei.

"I thought you liked him?" Blake looked confused.

"Oh, I did," Naruto answered. "But he was a very… unique person."

Two people sat down next to Naruto. He looked over, seeing Troy and Diana. "Hey, guys. Have you two been dancing all night?"

It appeared Diana didn't get the idea of formal clothing, as she was still dressed in her normal outfit. Troy, on the other hand, wore a suit that was a single shade darker than normal. Troy responded for them, "No, but for about an hour, yes."

"Hey, so, where's Melissa?" Naruto asked the pair.

"She said dancing wasn't her thing," Diana called past Troy. "I don't see why she would want to miss this!"

Troy spoke in a more subdued manner than Diana, which wasn't terrifically hard to do, "I believe she said she was going to spend the night shooting at Grimm."

"So, she didn't come here?"

Troy shook his head, "Well, given what she said she would be doing, that might be a good thing."

They all laughed, like four friends just joking around. And they were, so perhaps it wasn't so out of the ordinary. They each spent the rest of the night, about an hour or so, all just sitting about, talking with one another.

* * *

The following day, though he wasn't sure when he got there, Naruto sat up in his bed. He looked around, confused. He shrugged, thinking he was probably more tired than he thought.

He found he was the first to wake, surprisingly. Usually it was Diana, and then she would end up waking all of them up. So instead, it fell to Naruto.

He crossed his legs and arms, thinking with his eyes closed. How to best wake them up…

Though the morning was scarcely peaceful, Melissa, after today, was glad that Diana was usually the one who woke them up. While each of them slept, Naruto had somehow rigged an entire system of air horns, sirens, and pie-throwers around each of their beds.

He had mentioned that he had spent much of his childhood as a prankster, but this was just a little excessive. Of course, Diana enjoyed it, but she enjoyed everything. Troy seemed somewhere between outraged and livid, while Melissa honestly didn't know what to think.

Somehow, none of the sound penetrated the walls, and there wasn't a single angry complaint to them all morning. Surprising when you create enough noise to wake an entire Kingdom. Naruto sat, grinning, on one of the desks. Troy stomped over to him, tripping and falling pie chunks.

"Please, Naruto…" Melissa choked out through laughter. "Don't ever do that again." The Faunus rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"No promises," he replied, worrying Melissa. Well, at least she could buy headphones for next time.

Troy kept up his glare for the rest of the morning, all through the time of getting ready for a mission that day. Naruto had a grin on his face all morning, and Melissa could tell he enjoyed 'getting back to his roots,' so to speak.

"Will all first year students please report to the amphitheater?" came Glynda's voice over the PA system.

"Wait, amphitheater?" Naruto asked. "Does she mean the auditorium?"

"Probably," Melissa shrugged.

* * *

In the auditorium, apparently also called the amphitheater, Team MDNT found there to be a rather large crowd of people already gathered. As such, they stood near the back of the horde, joined soon by Team RWBY.

"Hey, guys," Naruto greeted. Before any of them could respond, Professor Goodwitch stepped up to the microphone.

"Quiet! Quiet please," she called out to them. "Professor Ozpin would like to share a few words before we begin."

"Today we stand together, united. Mistral. Atlas. Vacuo. Vale. The four Kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression. A war that was about much more than where borders fell or who traded with whom, but about the very idea of individualism itself. We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression. And as you are well aware, that was something many could not stand for," Ozpin paused for just a moment.

"As a result, those who opposed this tyranny began naming their children after one of the core aspects of art itself: color. It was their way to demonstrate that not only would they refuse to tolerate this oppression, but neither were the generations to come. And it was a trend that is held to this very day. We encourage individuality, expressionism, and unity through diversity. As I have said, today we stand together, united. But this bond cannot exist without effort. Which is why today, while the rest of the world celebrates peace, Huntsmen and Huntresses will work to uphold it. As first year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional Huntsman or Huntress on a mission. Some of you may be taken out of the Kingdom for several days. Others may work within the walls for the rest of the week. But no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best."

As he walked away, Team RWBY began to mutter excitedly. Naruto pulled Blake aside as they walked away, "Be careful, okay?"

She rolled her eyes at him, "I'm not exactly weak, you know."

"No, I mean- The huntsman. Don't get caught slipping off, when you do."

"Yes, Naruto, I know," she walked off, joining her team over by the board.

He turned to his teammates. Melissa was smirking at him, "Aw, how cute!"

"Oh, shut up," he pointed to a mission board. "Well, shall we?"

Over by the mission board, under search and destroy, there were, as with the rest of them, three jobs available. One was Grimm Infestation. The second was Village Destroyer. The third just said Tracking.

"I like the sound of the first one," Melissa voted.

Naruto looked at the second one, "No, I think we should go with Village Destroyer. It sounds… reasonable."

Troy nodded, "Yes, it does. Besides, I'm sure an infestation could mean something as simple as only a few Grimm."

"Right then, Village Destroyer it is!" Melissa typed in MDNT when asked for team name, and like that, they were signed up for their first mission. Apparently, they left in two hours.

For a while, they sat around at the airship docks, waiting for their time to leave to arrive. They spent the time talking with Team RWBY, who were also leaving that day, except in three hours.

At one point, Naruto found himself talking to Yang, who was asking, "Hey, so how did you follow us that one day?"

"Oh, I was on the airship. You know, waiting, being sneaky."

"But the only other person there was that guy with the snake tail," Yang said. Naruto had a moments pause before answering.

"No, I mean I was _on_ the airship. As in, not inside," he lied.

Yang rolled her eyes, "Just like I thought. You're really weird, you know that, Whiskers?"

"Meh."

Soon, the Bullhead that would take Team MDNT to their mission's starting point arrived, signifying they would be leaving in only a few minutes. The huntsman they would be shadowing stepped off of it, walking towards them slowly.

He caused two different reactions from the students: confusion and caution. Naruto stood, ready for any action the man would take. Ruby also seemed like she was ready to step in.

The man who approached them, the man who Team MDNT would be shadowing for their entire mission, just so happened to be the same man who Ruby and Naruto had met on their way to get Naruto's chokutō. He still wore the same long coat and mask, completely obscuring his features.

He held his hand up for them to hold their fire, as he wasn't there to fight any of them, "Hello there, students. So, which of you will be accompanying me to apprehend the destroyer of two villages?"

Naruto tentatively raised his hand, as his teammates didn't notice, raising theirs normally. "Very good then," he turned to Naruto. "And I believe we've met once before. Why did you never come to me?"

Naruto still had his eyes narrowed, hand ready next to his chokutō, "Couldn't activate the card. Didn't know how."

"But it's so simple. You just needed to fill it with aura."

"Well, that explains it," Naruto finally got a little bit of closure. For weeks, he'd been trying to get the card to do anything, but had failed each time. It made sense now; he didn't have aura.

"Well, anyway, I'm the huntsman you will each be shadowing," he moved on, turning back to face the entire team. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Imperius. Imperius Resdomindo. (Rest oh mean dough (yes I know it's a weird name)) Who are all of you?"

Naruto relaxed a little, "Naruto Uzumaki."

Melissa said proudly, "Melissa Mikeham."

"Troy Davores," answered Troy. "Diana, focus."

"Oh… uh, Diana Grout!" she said, turning away from the flock of birds above.

"Well, I must say, you all seem like excellent huntsmen and women in training," Imperius replied, as he gestured for them to follow him to the Bullhead. "I look forward to the next week or so."

"Wait, 'Week?'" Naruto asked, as they all walked.

"Oh, yes. Tracking someone like this will undoubtedly take time. This will take at least five days, more if whoever it is covers their tracks well," explained the huntsman. "But, this just means you four get even more experience in the field. Truly, nothing teaches better."

They reached the Bullhead. One by one, they boarded, until finally they were all on. The doors closed, and the airship took off, beginning their mission.

* * *

 **Omake #2 - Ninja Competition: Part 2**

It wasn't abnormal for students to train in the Emerald Forest. Not at all. In fact, it was almost expected of anyone who wanted to improve themselves. It was, however, abnormal for students to either compete against or watch others compete against other students in a race through the forest.

But, the Teams of RWBY, JNPR, and MDNT weren't normal, either. And so it was that they found themselves on the top of Beacon Cliff, ready for the challenge Naruto had proposed. Those not participating, those not either a Faunus or wearing mostly green, were standing off to the side, placing bets amongst themselves on who would win. In most cases, they would bet on their teammate, but Yang put some Lien on Naruto.

"What? I've seen him fight," She justified.

"SO!" Naruto shouted, excited for the event that day. "As you may be unaware, the first challenge is a race! Thanks to our little Ruby here-" he gestured to the proud huntress-in-training. "-we have three flags placed on the other end of the forest. First one to get one of them and get back wins the challenge! Now that we all know the challenge, let's start! GO!"

And they were off, all three of the proclaimed ninja dashing off the cliff, leaping down into the forest below. Down in the forest, the three hit the ground at almost the same time, and all immediately took off at top speed. Except, that is, for Naruto, who was banned from using his 'Semblance' for this race. Would be just a little unfair to let him use his two hundred mile-per-hour run in a competition to see who could move the fastest, right?

Just a little. Even so, Naruto was still incredibly fast, and agile as well. Blake soon lost sight of him as he moved through the woods, and turned her gaze forwards, dead-set on winning. No way in hell would she lose to either of these two!

Ren kept his eye- or, at least, the corner of it- fixed on the cat Faunus as he jumped through the forest. He was confident in his own speed, but he also couldn't see Naruto. Thinking he was ahead of him, he tried to go even faster, only to miss his next branch, and fall to the ground.

Blake heard a loud thud behind her, and turned for a half second. She probably would have stayed turned for longer, but for the fact that she slammed into a tree. Sliding down it, she cursed herself for her curiosity. It would be the death of her one day…

Ren and Blake recovered quickly, and began to sprint on ground level, something that seemed to them to be quicker. Soon enough, the both of them arrived at the other end of the forest, finding one flag each. They took them, vaguely aware that the other person was there, and turned on their heels, making a dead sprint back in the other direction. For another hour, they were neck-and-neck, all the way back to Beacon Cliff. Both of them launched themselves up it ignoring all fatigue, and reaching the top in only a second.

"Oh, hey guys!" Naruto sat on the ground, laying back, with a flag next to him. He cheerfully waved to both of them.

Naruto wasn't sure if the expression on their faces were those of people who were upset, or people who were angry. He gulped.

* * *

 **Right, well. That chapter felt a little dull. I liked it well enough, personally. The omake, once again, I think needs polishing.**

 **Ah, and the pairing begins. Fair warning, I'm going to find some way to screw this up incredibly. Oh, and by the way: Part of the reason I chose her over, say, Yang or even Ruby, was because of some of the reasoning I've seen used plenty, and used myself last chapter. She behaves very similarly to Sasuke, and given Naruto's mysterious belief that he and Sasuke are friends…**

 **Also, I've never seen a good pairing with these two. And I have absolute faith I will continue to not see one.**

 **And yes, the mystery man appears! So many hours of deciding what to do with him, all thrown out the window to make him what he's going to be in the next chapter. Just wait for that; it'll be a good time.**

 **I'm excited for the next few chapters. I've got big plans, you see. This is something I've had planned out since Chapter f*cking Two.**

 **Until Chapter 10!**


	10. Chapter 10: The Mission

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I don't own RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 10: The Mission

The wilderness was expansive. It stretched out for miles and miles, swallowing everything. Every so often, a small town, a collection of buildings and walls, would perforate through the trees, only to be passed over quickly.

Though Naruto had traveled through such areas for weeks before, it was a completely different experience to see it all from above. One couldn't truly ever see all of it. From above, one couldn't see the life it had, the extent of the creatures living in it. While Grimm may have run rampant, there were all manner of animals living beneath them as they flew.

But from within the forest, one couldn't see just how far it extended, how far into the horizon it went. From above, they could. Even with how far they had gone, they still hadn't reached their destination. Even Naruto was amazed, and he had lived his entire life in the middle of the largest forest in his world.

As they flew, Team MDNT asked several questions to the man, Imperius. Melissa was the first to break the silence amongst them, "So… You said you met Naruto before?"

He took his gaze off of the forest, turning to face the leader of the team shadowing him, "Yes, I have. I witnessed him attack a group of Atlesian students."

Melissa frowned, glancing at Naruto, "Why did you attack them, Naruto?"

Naruto sighed, not looking from the horizon as he answered, "Simple. They taunted me with my heritage. Called me a filthy animal. I just felt like I should prove them right."

"But- I- Why-" Melissa seemed torn between disappointment and anger. The disappointment was directed at both groups involved, while the anger was given only to the other students, for their racism. It wasn't hard for someone to see that Melissa couldn't stand for racism, between her attacking Cardin and the attitude she had taken towards the White Fang. Hell, she even seemed to have a problem with Yang's nickname for Naruto, given how she had stopped using it.

"But I still don't get how that led to you two meeting," she continued. Naruto glanced behind himself, at Imperius. He sighed to himself, as if pondering something.

"Well, he showed up when the fight was about to start. I probably would have been fine against them, but he came in and knocked all four of them out cold in an instant. I'm not even sure how he did it."

"That's a good question, Naruto," Melissa stated. She turned to the mystery man. "So, how did you knock all of them out?"

Imperius ignored her question at first, "You know, boy, that wasn't terrifically smart. All you did was copy what the White Fang does. You terrorized some racists, and set them even more firmly in their beliefs. They might act more respectful of Faunus, but they're always going to think of them as wild animals because of how you handled them." He faced Melissa. "And don't worry. You'll see how I beat them once we track down this person who destroyed two villages. Which reminds me: When we fight whoever it is, you all must obey my commands to the letter. Someone who can destroy a town the way the reports say this person did has incredible skill and power. If I tell you to run, you must run as far as you can. Understood?"

Each of them nodded. He seemed satisfied, and turned back to the woods. Troy asked the next question, "How were the villages destroyed?"

Imperius sighed. He seemed hesitant to answer, and gave a vague answer, to avoid it, "You'll see once we get there. Remember, this is a tracking mission. We'll be searching for clues as to where this person went."

"Are we sure it was just one person?" asked Naruto, raising a good point.

Imperius closed his eyes, thinking back to the only person who had survived either of the attacks. She had been so traumatized and confused that she could barely even tell them that 'someone' had destroyed her village. When they had investigated, they found the nearest village had also been destroyed. He opened his eyes, looking at the young Faunus, "No, we're not. But that's another thing we're meant to find out. We need to know who did this."

"So, it might just be bandits?" Troy asked. Imperius thought a moment, then nodded.

"It may well be. But there would need to be an exceedingly large amount of bandits to take both towns."

"So, how do we plan on finding them?" Melissa asked. Imperius held up his hand.

"Please, enough questions. You'll get your answers when we arrive."

Team MDNT obeyed, not wanting him to end the mission before it began. They dispersed, with Melissa sitting down next to Naruto.

"So, any ideas?" she tested. He shook his head.

"No, none. I'm not sure why you thought I would, though," he answered, with a raised eyebrow at her.

"Hey, I was just starting up a conversation, Naruto. No need for that. Well, do you think it could be the White Fang?" she continued.

He shrugged, with a small, "Could be."

"Are you worried about your girlfriend?" Melissa teased. He rolled his eyes.

"No, not really. Blake's more than capable, you know. In fact, she's probably better than you…"

"Hey!" she shot, before noticing Naruto was laughing. "Oh, you ass."

"Hey, when you make it so easy, I would be rude to pass up the chance."

"So, what do you know about him?" She queried, motioning to Imperius.

"Eh, not much. He's fast, though. And since he's apparently a veteran huntsman, it's possible that's not even his semblance."

"Really? He's fast? Like, you and Ruby fast?" Melissa asked incredulously, staring at the man.

"Maybe. Though, like I've said, it's possible it's not his semblance. It's also possible that it is. I don't know," Naruto explained.

Melissa blinked in amazement. She had though Ruby and Naruto were both fast, but according to Naruto, this guy might be even faster. And if he was, he might still have a semblance to make him even deadlier than he already seemed.

She had obviously heard stories about huntsmen; everybody had. It was the kind of thing parents used to comfort their kids, or even to spook them, like the boogeyman. However, she had never actually heard about one's abilities, only the feats they could perform. She stared at the back of the apparently incredible warrior, amazed. It just reminded her of why she wanted to be a huntress.

She turned back to Naruto, still marveling at the huntsman in her head. Her thoughts, however, were quickly taken over by the sudden appearance of some strange orange marks around Naruto's eyes. She was going to ask about them, but before she got the chance, they faded, leaving her even more confused. Naruto looked pleased, from the grin and the way his eyes lit up once they opened.

"Why are you so happy all of a sudden?" Melissa asked, being oblivious to the achievement Naruto had just managed. She didn't know what Sage Mode was, or what it entailed. Naruto, however, knew exactly what he had just accomplished, and felt like he should get some kind of praise for it. Then he blinked, having heard Melissa's question, but not the words. He turned to her, still grinning.

"Uh- What?" he answered her question with one of his own.

"Why are you so happy now?" she repeated.

"Oh, uh, I'm just excited for a mission. I felt like I was getting rusty, ya know?"

"Ooookay…" Melissa replied. "So… What was up with your eyes just there? Why did they have orange around them?"

She didn't notice, but Naruto had a brief moment of panic inside his head. He had been a tiny bit careless, and let her see his Sage Mode. Luckily for him, he was saved from explained by Imperius suddenly shouting out, "We'll be arriving in a moment! Prepare your landing strategy!"

Using preparations as a pretense for ignoring the question, Naruto stood, and began a few stretches, to ready himself for a landing. Imperius yelled again, "ON 3! 1! 2! 3! GO!"

They each jumped out of the Bullhead at the same time, just above a wide, earthy clearing in the forest. Naruto shot down towards it, pumping his legs full of chakra to reinforce them for the impact with the ground. He flipped over in midair, pointing his legs straight at the ground, and hit it at full speed, with no injuries.

Melissa calmly dropped out of the Bullhead, not bothering to do anything for most of the hundred story drop. Then, within a hundred feet of the ground, she began to slow herself with her semblance, touching down with ease next to Naruto. Troy and Diana appeared next to them, both fine.

Their huntsman touched down last, not even fazed by the hard landing. He examined each of them, then directed them, "Right, fan out and look for any clues as to where our objective may have headed."

Team MDNT all looked confused, turning to each other before looking back at Imperius. Naruto asked the same question all of them were thinking, "Uh, aren't we supposed to go to the village first?"

Looking around, the man gestured to everything around them. Only then did Team MDNT realize they were actually in a crater, and it was filled with rubble. "I'm afraid, Naruto, that this is the village. Or at least, what's left of it," Imperius explained, turning back to them. "Do you all see now why I specifically instructed for each of you to obey me when the battle comes? A fate similar to the villagers may await you if you don't.

Now, as you look for clues, I also want each of you to keep an eye out for any survivors. It's possible there may be a few still here. This village _was_ only destroyed about a week ago." They nodded in confirmation, the dashed off to search.

* * *

Naruto immediately began to search the edges of the village, where most of the rubble had ended up. The walls at the top of the crater were in shambles, with huge sections missing from them. He wasn't exactly a stranger to death, but he had never before seen such a massacre before. Even when the snake had attacked Konoha, the ninja had protected almost everybody.

But this as different. He could practically feel the blood all around him, splattered across the stones around the bodies, the bodies that seemed to be clawing for life even now. He found very little, only them and the rubble. The closest thing he had to a clue was a tiny amount of fabric that didn't look like it had been worn by one of the villagers. He shrugged it off as something a huntsman had worn, not worth scrutinizing over.

He began to search the surrounding woods, only to find even more death and destruction. Whoever had done this had to be some kind of sick person, some kind of psycho. They had killed an entire village worth of people, for no apparent reason. Regardless of what Imperius said, Naruto decided, he would kill the one who did this.

" **This isn't much different than some of the acts your precious Konoha committed. The ninja of the Elemental Nations are the most ruthless creatures of all."**

' _This coming from a Bijū? One that destroyed a large amount of the Leaf?'_

" **That was not my fault. I was forced into doing that by an Uchiha, one with a Mangekyou Sharingan."**

' _Wait, you what? A Mangekyou? Was it Itachi?'_

" **No, brat, it wasn't. He was barely a boy at that time."**

' _Who was it then?'_

" **We can discuss this at a later date. It doesn't matter to you either way. You seem to have no chance of ever returning to your world."**

' _Fine. I'll ask again after this mission.'_

Melissa decided that, since it was a crater, anything of note was probably pushed to the edges of the village. Seeing Naruto run off to one side, she went to the other. But, as with Naruto, all she was met with was the sight of death. But unlike Naruto, she had never seen anything like this. As someone who grew up in Vale, the sight of so many corpses laid about caused her to feel sick. She bent over, retching, both from sight and smell.

Troy and Diana moved around within the crater, searching amongst the rubble for any clue, any hint as to who could have done this. Even Diana wasn't smiling, not at something like this. She still had her boundless energy, however, as she zipped all over the place, from rubble pile to rubble pile. All they found was a collection of footprints directly in the middle of the crater, where the blast had to have come from.

They didn't realize what it meant for a moment, but Troy frowned a moment later. For there to be footprints in the middle of the crater, then whoever made it had to have walked to the center afterwards. What was confusing wasn't that there were footprints at the epicenter of the blast.

It was that there were none anywhere else in the entire crater. They looked around, but the only ones they were able to find were a set of seven. At the least, they knew the minimum amount of people involved.

For several hours more, the students searched, but were unable to find anything of note, beyond the prints in the middle. Imperius looked over them, carefully. He examined them closely, saying he may be able to learn something from them.

"Look here," he said, pointing to the edges of one of them. "See how shallow this one is, compared to this one?" He pointed to another one. "It looks as though whoever made several of these only stood around for a few moments, not long enough to leave much of an impression in the dirt."

"And? What does that mean?" Naruto asked.

Imperius looked up, "Well, Troy said it seemed like they spoke after the blast, given the prints. But if they only stood about for a second or two, they couldn't have. So then, why were they here? Furthermore, why are two of the footprints much deeper than the other five?

These questions don't mean much to you four, but to a veteran huntsman, every detail is important. But, seeing as there seems to be nothing else of note in this entire destroyed town, we need to go to the next one." He looked up at the moon. "However, it seems to be far too late to move today. We'll make camp here, where we can see any Grimm approaching. Melissa, if you will, take first watch. Your weapon appears to be suited for this."

The leader of Team MDNT nodded firmly, then jumped up onto a large pile of rubble near to the camp the rest of her team was making. She kept her eyes fixed on the edges of the crater, scanning nearby to them every so often. Throughout her watch, all she saw were a few Grimm far in the distance.

Eventually, she woke Naruto, and gave him the next turn on watch. He climbed to her position, as she went to sleep. There he sat, absorbing Natural Energy. He entered his perfected Sage Mode, orange pigmentation appearing around his eyes. With his Sage Mode active, he was able to scan the area without even needing to focus. He could only sense a few Grimm, and they were all in the forest, far away on the edge of the old town.

Deciding he had more than enough energy, Naruto just kept replenishing his Sage chakra all night, since it was the best way to keep an eye on the Grimm. Besides, he wouldn't get tired while in Sage Mode, since one of its key factors was an increased healing rate. It allowed for his brain to keep functioning normally, without needing to sleep.

* * *

In the morning, Melissa scolded him when she saw he was still up on the rubble. He was supposed to have only kept his vigil for an hour, then woken Troy for his turn. But in the middle of her lecture, she noticed he didn't seem tired at all. Her first thought was that he slept on his watch.

After a rather long morning's worth of scolding, Team MDNT was off with their assigned huntsmen, walking down a path that led through the forest, to the next town. According to Imperius, this one was destroyed the same way. Though it was apparently the closest village to the last one, it would still take them a little over two days to get to it.

And so, they walked. The first day was spent doing just that. Of course, on Remnant, a peaceful walk through the woods is nearly nonexistent. Within an hour, the five of them found themselves attacked by a pack of Beowolves.

"Hm," was Imperius's reaction. "Well, this is perfect." He whirled around to face them, with the pack swiftly approaching. "I want to each to show me what you are capable of. Show me where all your training has gotten you to."

Naruto grinned, jumping over the man to stab a lunging Beowolf into the ground. He pulled Reppumeiyo out of it, with his crazy smile still on his face, "Well? Come on, guys! Let's kill some Grimm!"

Melissa laughed, jumping into a nearby tree and pulling out her rifle. One Grimm, two Grimm, three Grimm, four. Again and again, she shot off her gun, each time blowing the brains out of a Beowolf.

Troy sighed, pulling out his knives. He charged towards a Beowolf, sliding under it and slashing as he went. With its legs cut off, the Beowolf fell to the ground. Troy stood, and stabbed it to death. He turned to the rest of the pack, the part that Naruto wasn't wading through, and began to kill them one by one.

Diana squealed with delight, as she knocked aside another Grimm. Then another, and another. Oh, how good it felt to be smacking them aside so easily. She held her blade flat, and spun in a single circle, hitting several Grimm with the blunt edge of her blade.

Naruto was having the time of his life. He could go from one Grimm to the next with ease, barely spending any effort on them. He slashed at one, changing his sword to a pistol as he did, and shot at another. Both died, and he moved to his next victim.

Imperius watched each of the students with interest. For a team that had apparently been working together for months, they lacked any kind of actual teamwork. Oh, sure, they could fight on the same battlefield as the others, but they didn't actually work together.

Troy was a systematic killer, using largely the same three different tactics for each Beowolf. Diana enjoyed the fight too much, and didn't actually land any killing blows. Melissa only took out the stragglers, not any that may have helped her team. Naruto was similar to Troy, but much more unpredictable in his moves.

Imperius sighed to himself. One thing they would need to work on was definitely teamwork. Without it, they would never be able to stand up to other teams, or even just more powerful Grimm.

Eventually, the entire pack was dead, and Team MDNT stood proudly over their victory. Imperius said nothing, and simply motioned for them to follow him. The battle had held them up for nearly two hours. There certainly a lot of Grimm.

Several more hours of walking later, the five were attacked by yet another Grimm. This time, it was a Deathstalker, and a rather large one at that. Imperius, seeing it approach through the woods, told them to fight it the same as they had fought the Beowolves earlier.

His intention was to show them they would need to work together to defeat this monster. After all, no first year student could take down a Deathstalker on their own. Melissa looked at her team, and they seemed to come to some sort of agreement. She ran to the opposite side of the road, jumping up into another tree, sniper at the ready.

Naruto extended his arm, doing… something, while Troy and Diana ran towards the great beast. Troy stabbed at its legs, then its tail, then began to strike at any exposed point he could find. Diana leapt onto its back, stabbing at the bony armor. Naruto, however, didn't move. Imperius was about to tell him to help, but stopped when he saw aura gather in the boy's hand.

As he watched, a magnificent blue sphere of aura formed, growing larger. As it grew to the size of a baseball, Imperius looked at Naruto's face, only to see it was contorted with effort. His attention was ripped off of the Faunus's face when he heard a large explosion.

He close his eyes from the brightness of the blast, and when he opened them, Naruto had stumbled backwards, clutching his arm. Imperius could see why. All up the boy's arm, there was a fresh scar, seeming to spiral outwards from his palm.

"Naruto, I must ask you what it was you just did. I've never seen anything like that before," he requested. Naruto looked at him, still clearly in pain.

"Y-Yeah, sure. Sometime," Naruto got out. Imperius turned his attention back to the Deathstalker, which was getting annoyed, obviously. Whatever it was that Naruto had done, it seemed to be the trump card Team MDNT had planned on using. Troy and Melissa had done little damage, and Diana hadn't fared much better. Troy was smacked away by the stinger just as he was about to slash at the left set of legs. Diana swiped at the stinger, being just able to cut it off.

The Deathstalker shook her off, and she was sent into a tree. It covered itself with its pincers, feeling the bullets from Melissa. Seeing it was hopeless, Imperius stepped in.

Naruto couldn't tell what it was Imperius did, but the front of the Deathstalker was soon cut off of the rest of it. As the Grimm dissolved, he looked to the man questioningly. Imperius turned around, and pulled some bandages from a pouch beneath his coat, "Come here, Naruto." He wrapped the bandages around Naruto's arm, all the down and over his hand once.

Naruto tested the bandages. Well, at least it was still fully mobile. That was good.

* * *

That night, Imperius sat them all around the campfire. They were situated in the middle of a small clearing, one which would hopefully make it hard for any Grimm to sneak up on them. When they were all sitting down, he looked at each one of them in turn, before turning to the campfire, with his eyes shut.

"You all…" He began. "Are the least coordinated band of misfits I've ever had shadow me. And that's saying quite a lot. You all work individually of each other, relying on your own power to survive each fight. While this may work against single opponents or basic Grimm, it will lead to your death against more powerful Grimm, or large groups of enemies. Even today, against the Deathstalker, you staked everything on that technique of Naruto's. But surely, you knew it might fail? And yet, you all had no contingency plan, none at all."

He paused, waiting for a response from any of them. They each sat silently, realizing how little they'd fought or even trained together. Melissa was always off training against Grimm with her gun, while Troy and Diana were always in the city. And Naruto seemed to spend most of his time with the members of Team RWBY. All in all, they only ever actually all fought together, except today, way back during initiation. And even then, they had split into two teams, one for each side of the chasm.

"So, do each of you see where I'm coming from, what I'm getting at?" Imperius asked. They each nodded, accepting it. "Good. Tomorrow, I want you all to fight as a team, not as a group. Now, Naruto, you take the first watch. And this time, at least try to wake someone else up."

Naruto nodded, and jumped into a tree nearby. As before, back in the crater, he began to draw on the Natural Energy around him. Soon enough, he was back in Sage Mode. He made note of his four comrades, and the scattering of Grimm.

An hour later, he frowned. There was a large Grimm headed towards them, high in the air. A Nevermore. He leapt down into the camp, waking his team quickly, "NEVERMORE!"

In an instant, Imperius was up, staring down the Grimm fiercely. "Get back!" he ordered the students. They fell back, Melissa taking a position near the tree line while the others stood in front of her by a few feet. Naruto watched carefully this time, making sure he saw what the huntsman did.

The Nevermore approached the camp at breakneck speed. Within an instant, it could practically have eaten Imperius. But from nowhere, it fell from the sky, head severed, with the huntsman not having moved at all.

"What… What just happened?" Naruto asked, his teammates nodding in agreement with his question.

"Well, that takes care of that," Imperius declared flatly. He turned back to face them. "Good work, Naruto. Now, I believe it is Troy's turn on watch. Mr. Davores, if you will."

Troy nodded, and climbed into the tree behind Melissa. "The rest of you, including you, Naruto, get some rest. You'll need it in the morning."

The rest of them went back to the camp, which was miraculously untouched by the Nevermore's attack. Naruto laid down, but he didn't try to sleep. He reentered Sage Mode, thinking to help Troy keep an eye on the camp. For the next several hours, until it was his turn on watch, he kept it up, but never felt anymore Grimm approach them.

The next morning, they were back on the road to the destroyed village. They were getting closer, at least according to Imperius. He said they might even arrive by the end of the day. Of course, being the wilds of Remnant, Grimm were practically everywhere, and attacked every so often. Imperius insisted they fight them as a team, and they tried. Now that they were made aware of how little they worked together, it was painfully obvious in an actual battle.

Naruto was probably the one who worked best with them, barring Troy and Diana, thanks to his previous team experience. Even so, he was more than a little out of practice. The last time he had fought together with somebody was against the strange not-Itachi, but that was over a year ago.

Though Team MDNT was able to kill all the Grimm, with little enough difficulty, Imperius told them it would be far easier if they worked together. They set off down the road again, and by the time the sun was setting, they could see the walls of a town in the distance.

By the time they reach the town, the sun had set in the sky, but the moon was quite up yet. Once again, the town was naught but a crater, rubble scattered about inside and out. "Dear lord…" Melissa muttered. Not just once, but twice, a group had destroyed an entire village, leaving behind only a crater. And if they had been using a bomb of some kind, then just how many did they have? Where did they get them?

Seeing they would get nowhere in the dark, the five warriors spent the night on the outskirts of the town, preparing to enter it in the morning. This time, the night was uneventful, not a single Grimm attack.

Morning came, and brought with it a rather grim day. The clouds signified the impending storm, meaning they would have to work fast, to find anything before the rain washed it away. They split up once more, to cover more ground. Drawing the crater from above, with the gate at the bottom, Naruto got the top left, Troy got the top right, Melissa got the bottom left, and Diana got the bottom right.

Naruto was off in an instant, with Troy following along. Diana and Melissa each started at the gate, and began to work their way around. Imperius initially worked along with Melissa, asking her, "So, Ms. Mikeham, what drives you to be a huntress? What is your reason for being at Beacon?"

Melissa sighed, looking over a pile of rubble, "I was born in Vale. Everyone always talked about how huntsmen and huntresses were the greatest heroes in the world, and I wanted to be just like them. Then one day, my dad got killed by a Beowolf while he was out gathering wood. So now, I hunt for vengeance."

"Hm," Imperius left, traveling to Diana's section next.

Once there he asked the same question of the rainbow girl, and she responded in a rather basic way, "Because it's fun! And I get to beat up the White Fang sometimes!"

"Oh? Is that it?"

"Yep!"

He made off towards Naruto's section, finding the boy nearing the middle of the crater.

"So, Mr. Uzumaki. Why do you wish to be a huntsman?"

"I don't. Not really, anyways," Naruto answered. He sighed, looking down, and made a face as if he was talking with someone. "But, I do it anyways. I've only ever been taught to fight, so I'll fight. Besides, maybe this way I'll be able to save more people than if I were to do anything else."

"A strange answer, I admit. Well, farewell for now."

As the last member of Team MDNT, Imperius spoke with Troy last, "And what about you, Mr. Davores? Why do you train to hunt?"

Troy answered with a straight face, as he shifted a large pile of rubble, "I want to get revenge on a man who killed my little brother."

"Who was this man?" Imperius asked. Troy shook his head, indicating he didn't know. "Then how do you plan to avenge your brother?"

"I don't. It's simply a goal that drives me onwards. The motivation that I might one day kill the man is why I went to Beacon."

"Ah, well. Interesting," Imperius left Troy to search, and traveled towards the center of the blast zone. He wanted to see if it was consistent. He found Naruto and Melissa, both hunched over the footprints. Melissa also seemed to be looked around for something, but Imperius didn't know what. As he got nearer, he found his theory was correct.

"Mr. Resdomindo? There's something I don't get about these craters," Melissa called out to him.

"And what would that be, Melissa?" he asked, kneeling down next to the prints. Different levels of shallowness, just like before.

"Well, I'm not an expert by any means, believe me. But… well, if a bomb did all this, where's the shrapnel?"

Imperius smiled beneath his collar. It seemed some of his team was smarter than they let on. Melissa had noticed something he also had. "It's possible that the shrapnel was either disintegrated with the blast, or pushed away from the center by it. But let us suppose it didn't. If that were the case, then that would mean that this crater was made by something other than a bomb," Imperius gave her his theory.

Melissa frowned. The huntsman continued, "In other words, if that is the case, then whoever did this did it using a semblance, or something similar. Do bear in mind, of course, that this is only a slim chance. I personally have never heard of a semblance that could do this much damage to anything."

Naruto looked up, "These footprints… they're in the same exact positions as before. Down to the same size and shallowness."

Imperius looked down. The boy was right, though it didn't mean much. Chances were, they did the same thing after each blast. "Well, that's negligible. Perhaps it's a protocol they follow," Imperius responded. Naruto nodded, but didn't look too convinced. "Regardless, it doesn't mean much. It would appear this is where the trail runs cold."

Troy appeared, having finished his section, "You said this was the nearest village, right? Where's the next closest one?"

Imperius raised both eyebrows in surprise. It would make the most sense, all things considered. "About a hundred miles, give or take. It would take us another two days to get there," he answered. "Although, with no better option, that's what we'll do."

"How long apart did each of these attacks happen?" Melissa asked.

"Roughly a week. If the theory of the nearest town is correct, it will be completely destroyed, but only for a few days. That is, if the timeframe is consistent. Let's move. Troy, get Diana, then head to the north end of the village. We'll be waiting."

Troy nodded, then went to get the rainbow girl, who still hadn't finished searching apparently. Imperius turned to the other two students, "If he's correct, then time is of the essence. It's been about eleven days since the attack on this village, and assuming a week passes between each attack, then we only have a few days to track down these people before they strike again. Now, to the north."

The three made their way over the piles of rubble, headed to the north. Troy and Diana were waiting, the former bearing a grim expression. Imperius addressed them as a group, "We need to hurry. If Troy is correct, then we need to know and be able to get to the town after within three days. Any later, and we'll lose another village."

He took off running. Team MDNT followed behind him, with Melissa raising an eyebrow at Naruto for how he ran with his arms dangling backwards. He kept glancing at the trees, for some reason. All of a sudden, he shouted out, "I'm going to go faster!"

Imperius, for some reason, nodded, allowing Naruto to go ahead. Instead of, as Melissa expected, vanishing like he did when he used his semblance, he jumped up into a tree, rustling the leaves when he broke through them. But when she tried to follow suit, she could see that he was already much further ahead than them, while she could barely jump from tree to tree.

"Wow… That's… a strangely useful skill," Melissa said to herself, wondering why Naruto was so good at moving through trees. She dropped back down onto the road, running at a high speed once more. Thanks to all the training they'd been doing for so many months now, each student's stamina reserves were rather high, at least to a normal person.

But of course, they weren't infinite. Eventually, Troy stopped, breathing heavily. Melissa soon followed suit, with Imperius stopping briefly only to tell them to catch up later. Troy raised his right hand, still doubled over, and gestured for Melissa to come closer. She grabbed his arm, and, as with Diana against Torchwick, they vanished.

Though the group stopped at night, after Troy and Melissa had caught up to them, their sleep was brief. Naruto, even though he had been going through trees for hours now, volunteered for first watch, breathing heavily. He insisted he would be able to stay awake.

* * *

In the morning, Naruto was still on watch, but looked fully revitalized. Not even bothering this time, the group took off again. Imperius said they would arrive around midday, with how fast they were able to move. All yesterday, they had been leaving Grimm in the dust, not even bothering to fight them. The trend continued today, except for when a King Taijitu blocked the road. Before any of them arrived, Naruto was already fighting it. He was moving too fast for them to track, and something he did violently exploded the center of it. It vanished in the fashion of a dead Grimm, and they continued.

Imperius was right, and they arrived at the village around noon. But, unfortunately, Troy was also correct. Identical to the other two, the village was little more than a crater. The only difference was that there were still fires burning in this one, giving away how recent the attack was. Imperius directed them the same as yesterday, and once more, they split off of each other.

Imperius headed straight for the center, not wasting even a moment. Once more, there was no shrapnel. But by now, he was doubting it was a bomb. Each village was practically a mirror image of the others. Had an explosion caused this, there would have been different features still standing, and on top of that, there likely would have been blackened earth, as a result of the heat of the explosion. But the earth was smooth, like it had been compressed into itself.

Naruto searched his section quickly, not expecting anything major to show up. He shifted around several piles of rubble, checked under many of the bodies, and even put out a lot of fires, but he wasn't able to find anything. In truth, he felt this stop was probably pointless. They knew where this group was headed next, and could probably stop them if they hurried. But, huntsman's orders.

Melissa, even from the air, found little more than rubble. By now, the bodies, while disgusting, were par for the course. The smell still got to her though. She swept over her area quickly, wanting to avoid it as much as possible. Even fresh, the smell of decay was awful. Shaking her head at the futility of her search, she made her way to the center.

Troy was pushing over a large pillar that was blocking his way when, out of the silence, he heard a cough. It was hoarse and raspy, the cough of needing water. He followed the noise to a pile of stone wreckage. Fast as he could, he tore down the pile, revealing a survivor just underneath all of it. Quickly, he whipped out his canteen of water, ensuring the man could live.

With some difficulty, the man choked down the water, and began to try and say something. Troy put the man on his back and went to Imperius. Imperius stared at him strangely, but took the man from him, laying him down gently against some destroyed doors. Once more, the man coughed, and tried once again to speak, "Ma… oak… lou…"

They couldn't make out much of what he said, but Imperius asked him anyways, "Easy, now. Who did all this? Did you see them?"

The man coughed again, but began to speak in simple sentences, "Don't know. Couldn't count. Saw man wearing black. Woman, too."

"Do you know what destroyed the village? As in, the specific thing they did?"

The man shook his head. Imperius sighed, and turned to Team MDNT, "Well, we'll need to wait with him until a Bullhead arrives. Once it's here, we'll continue on to the next village…" He paused as he looked up. "No… scratch that. We'll have to spend the night in the crater. We'll get on to the next village tomorrow. With luck, we'll get there tomorrow night. If so, we'll be just in time to stop the attack. We may even see our foe on the way there."

The team nodded, and sat. Eventually, Diana showed up, and Imperius relayed to her the plan for the mission as of that moment. She also agreed to it, and each of them began to set up the camp for the night.

The Bullhead arrived, and Naruto pointed something out just before it left, "Wait… Why not just go to the next village using the Bullhead? Why haven't we done that already?"

Imperius nodded, "You know, that's a good idea. Everyone, get on."

They climbed onto the Bullhead, collapsing camp quickly. The airship rose of the ground, and began towards their target. The nearest village was roughly three days walk away, meaning it would take about an hour or two to get to it via Bullhead.

During the flight, having some time, Melissa wanted an answer to something that had been bugging her. Two things, actually, but only one seemed important. He was sat similarly to how he had a few days ago, at the edge, watching in wonder.

She sat down next to him, looking at him suspiciously, "So, how is it that you just _aren't_ tired this mission? You haven't slept at all."

He shrugged, not giving a verbal response. She scowled, "Naruto, come on. Give me an answer. I'm your teammate; you can trust me."

"I've been getting more than enough sleep. Besides, I don't usually need much to begin with."

"Ugh… Fine. Then, why do you know how to travel by tree so well?" she continued, seeing she was getting nowhere otherwise.

"It's a skill people in my village were taught. It helps us get around, with all the trees that were around us," Naruto evaded. He wasn't necessarily lying, but he wasn't about to say he was a dimension-traveling ninja just to explain how he could jump from tree to tree. Melissa groaned, and walked away.

" **This mission seems pointless."**

' _Well, maybe to you. But you could do that kind of damage to a village.'_

" **Hmph. Indeed. To think that this world's warriors could be so powerful… Delightful. It means that this world wouldn't be entirely boring once I break free."**

' _Not gonna happen. You're not hurting these people. You don't even have a reason here.'_

" **Do you think I need one?"**

' _Could you at least hold off on trying until I get back to the Elemental Nations, like you said before?'_

" **Fine."**

' _Thanks. So, what do you think caused those craters? Imperius thinks it wasn't a bomb, but what about you?'_

" **I don't know, brat. Once more, you forget I'm as new to this world as you.**

' _Well, you're always saying how old and wise you are…"_

" **Shut it."**

Troy sat next to Naruto, looking at the forest passing below, with the path vaguely snaking through it. "You know, I kind of want to spar against you sometime, Naruto. We should get a feel for each other's moves, so that we could synchronize better in a battle."

Naruto looked over at him with one eye open, "Sounds good. It would help our teamwork a lot, so… sure."

Troy gave a small smile, one of politeness. The kind of smile Sai used to give, when he knew he should show he was pleased.

As it grew darker, Naruto began to study the moon above. He hadn't actually spent much time looking at it, even for all the time he spent here. For the first time, he noticed how each of the fragments seemed to move in and out like a wave on a beach.

* * *

Shortly, they arrived in the next village, the one they believed would be attacked next. Luckily, it was still standing, and by their theory would stay as such for around twelve hours or so. Imperius pulled them aside after a brief dialogue with the Bullhead pilot, who had taken the man back to Vale, and told each of them that they would need to be discreet in this matter.

For example, they had landed a little ways away from the village, under the cover of darkness. Well, land was a loose term. _They_ had landed. The Bullhead had not. They made their way through roughly three hundred meters of forest before reaching the gates. Being that they were five strange and armed people entering the city in the middle of the night, the guards were a little hesitant. They relented, however, at least until Naruto tried to pass.

"Sorry, kid. Town policy. Because of a White Fang bombing recently, ya can't enter with a weapon. Leastways, not at night," said the guard on the left, with a gruff voice, but one that sounded sympathetic. "Not up to me, sorry."

His friend was far less so, "Yeah, beat it. We don't need your kind here!"

"Don't mind him. His mother died in the explosion," explained the first guard, quietly so the other couldn't hear.

Naruto, in custom, bowed slightly, and tried as best he could to respectfully say, "Alright. I'll wait out here tonight." He felt a little pity towards the second guard, and decided it would probably hinder the mission if he made a fuss.

Melissa, who seemed to be itching to smack one of the guards with her staff, came back through the gates, "I'll spend the night out here, as well. See you three in the morning."

Imperius gave a curt nod, and turned back to walk into the city, Troy and Diana in tow. Naruto gave an appreciative grin to Melissa as they walked away, "You don't have to do this, you know. I'll be fine out here."

"Hey, what are friends and potential love interests for?" she said teasingly. He stumbled a little, then looked at her with a mixture of alarm and confusion. "Kidding. I know you're all Blake's."

If he hadn't already, Naruto blushed lightly. Although, Melissa noted, he didn't deny it. Oh, how fun this teasing thing was. Yang was right.

* * *

"Will they be alright out there?" Troy asked the huntsman.

"They should be more that ok. Both of them are trained warriors. Now, come along. We should check the kind of defenses this village has," Imperius replied. "It may happen they have a better chance than the others."

While they couldn't speak for the others, this hamlet had quite a few huntsmen milling about. None of them seemed particularly talented, though. They were little more that guards that could out-guard the guards the town paid.

But the guard itself was plentiful. Two guards at each gate, dozens patrolling the streets, several more guarding important locations. Whoever had been attacking the towns would surely at least be slowed down by the manpower present. Perhaps even long enough for Imperius to kill them all.

"So, what's the plan?" Diana asked, peppy as always.

"We'll need energy for tomorrow. If these ruffians do show, then we need to be able to fight them without drowsiness."

Within the walls, the three rented a few rooms in an inn. It was surprisingly cozy for a parish far out into the wilderness as well. According to Imperius, they had great wine.

Outside the walls, however, Naruto and Melissa got done killing the third Beowolf to advance on them. The attacks hadn't been terrifically common, this third one being after several hours, but it was annoying enough to have to deal with them.

Eventually, Naruto just told Melissa he would keep watch all night, and she could sleep. He looked towards the village disdainfully, a little upset that they couldn't be inside the walls. Well, they could have, but since Naruto's weapon was important as a way for him to fight, it wasn't a pleasant option.

Before he knew it, Naruto saw the sun rise far over the trees. Only then did the light begin to break through the dense tree cover. By the time he even noticed it was getting brighter, it was already around eight in the morning. He dropped down off the tree, next to Melissa. He woke her gently and cautiously, not wanting to be bludgeoned by a reflex.

Huntsmen and Huntresses were always meant to be alert, however, and Melissa at bolt upright the moment he spoke. Only for a moment, she looked around wildly, before realizing it was only Naruto.

"We can head into the town now. The guard last night said I couldn't enter at night, but I might be able to now," Naruto told her. She nodded, and got up off the ground. They began their walk towards the town, feeling the need to rejoin the rest of their team before everything inevitably went to hell.

When they reached the gates, Naruto was once again barred from entry. One of the guards looked the same as the one from the previous night, who had lost his mother. The other was new, and spoke first, "We don't let your kind in here, animal."

Naruto sighed, "Guys, come on. I'm a huntsman, here to help."

The same guard scoffed, "Right, you. A huntsman. What sorry academy would accept something like you?"

The man was starting to annoy Naruto. It was one thing to be denied entry based on a policy set to protect people, but this was just racism, pure and simple. "Look, I don't have time for this. Let me in, or I'll find another way."

"HA! Right, and then what? You'll be arrested, that's what!" yelled the other guard. "Get out of here, now!"

Behind himself, Naruto could practically feel the anger and frustration rolling off of Melissa in waves. Luckily for them, Imperius chose a great time to show himself. "Ah, Naruto, Melissa. Good to see you're ready to go for the day. I ask that they be allowed in, sirs," he addressed the last part to the guards, who stiffened a little in the presence of the huntsman.

"Yeah, fine, whatever. It can enter. But if it causes trouble, we're holding you responsible."

Imperius gestured for the students to follow him, something they complied with earnestly. No sense in remaining where the guards were, if they would only cause problems. "What exactly happened there, Naruto? Did the guard last night not say you could enter during the day?"

Naruto shrugged, "Well, kind of. But I think those guys were just being assholes over my being a Faunus. Kami, I hate these whiskers sometimes."

Melissa patted him on his back, meant as a gesture of kindness, "Nah, they look good, Naruto."

Naruto grinned at her. Imperius had led them to an inn, out of which burst Troy and Diana. "So, what's the plan today? What are we going to do about the impending attack?" Naruto asked.

"If the timeframe holds up, the attack falls in a few hours. We need to be ready for it, to try and prevent it. There are three gates into the village. Troy, Diana, Melissa, you keep an eye on those," Imperius ordered. "Naruto, I want you to keep an eye out around the village. No telling if the culprit has already entered the city."

All of the nodded affirmatively, and scrambled off to their various positions. Troy to the south gate, Diana to the west, Melissa to the north. Naruto began to wander the streets, trying to spot anything or anyone out of the ordinary. Eventually, failing to find anyone, he climbed to the top of a roof, and began to meditate.

Soon enough, he was in Sage Mode once more. This village had roughly the same feeling of nature as the woods around it, so it was easy enough to enter. He began to scan the entire town with his sensory skills, but still found nothing. Inwardly, he wondered how he could sense aura, but it wasn't important enough for him to seriously consider at the moment. Releasing his Sage Mode, he dropped back down, continuing to look around.

Melissa kept an eagle eye on her gate, sitting a few feet away from it. Nobody cam through it all morning, and she was beginning to think that they wouldn't come from the north. At the south and west gates, her teammates were thinking similar things. A small village like this attracted few enough people, but there were absolutely none all morning.

Hours passed, and they were nearing the deadline for the attack. Imperius had been going to each of them, but was disappointed when he heard that they hadn't seen anyone. Even Naruto, who had been wandering around for several hours, hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary.

Imperius said he was going to give it the rest of the day, but afterwards they would need to move on, to find another potential target.

* * *

Naruto's head shot up. He thought he had heard something he most definitely should not have. Not here, not in this village. Something was wrong. And it was probably going to end poorly. He looked around crazily, but he didn't see anything out of place, even now. He looked in basically every direction he could, and saw nothing. But he knew what he had heard.

It had been a faint voice, one calling out, "KUCHIYOSE NO JUSTU!"

As far as he knew, he was the only person in this entire world who knew what a jutsu was. To hear another say it… It was more than just a little panic inducing. He leapt up onto a building turning in a full circle multiple times, seeing nothing. Whoever it was had clearly had as much success as he had had with summoning.

But it didn't matter how much success they'd had. The point was, someone in this world, a world different from his own, a world without jutsu, had tried to use a jutsu.

Naruto began to try to find Imperius. If he really had heard someone using a jutsu, then the huntsman needed to know. It was probably a bigger problem than the village-destroyer. He stopped mid-run, realizing two important things. The first was that only he knew why hearing a jutsu called out was so severe. The second was that whoever tried cast the jutsu had probably been the one who destroyed those villages.

All the evidence lined up very well. If they had a jutsu, then they weren't from this world. They couldn't have been. And since Imperius didn't think it was a bomb, but had never heard of such a powerful semblance before, which seemed to mean that whoever had done it wasn't from this world.

Naruto realized how stupid he was being. He had been searching for them with his eyes when he could've-

A huge boom sounded throughout the village. Naruto whipped around, and saw several clouds of smoke rising from different points in the town. His eyes widened. No doubt, Imperius and the rest had heard that.

As he could've predicted, Troy, Diana, and Melissa appeared next to him in an instant. Troy fell backwards, exhausted from the effort. Soon enough, like he could sense them, Imperius was in front of them, between the smoke and where they stood.

"Students, this may be it. Remember: follow my orders to. The. Letter," He paused. "It could be life or death for you.

Now, I want each of you to circle around. Judging by those explosions, whoever did this is in that direction," he pointed. "Surround them, and be sure to kill them quickly. I'll approach from this side. GO!"

Naruto didn't need to be told twice. In a flash, he was off. He was to the other side of the explosions in only a few moments, but he made sure to stay out of sight until his team arrived where they needed to be.

But it didn't last. In order to ensure he was in the right place, he took a quick glimpse, and saw the opponent. Luckily, at least, he wasn't facing the blond. It was a man, and he appeared to be bald. He had a number of metal spikes protruding from the top of his head, and he looked very strange.

None of this was what caught Naruto's attention though. What caught his attention was the man's clothing. Naruto recognized it easily, unfortunately. It was a black robe.

And it was emblazoned with red clouds.

* * *

 **Oh, how I feel like an asshole with that ending.**

 **I'm not sorry.**

 **Until Chapter 11!**


	11. Chapter 11: The Battle

**Here it is: The not-so-long awaited showdown.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 11: The Battle

Melissa was hurrying, but she found her speed too slow. Several minutes after Team MDNT had split up, she was still scurrying to her position. She was on the buildings as well, using her semblance to move between them with ease. Even still, she wasn't even halfway to where she needed to be. As far as she knew, both Naruto and Troy were already in position, with Diana close to her own.

As she jumped from one building to the next, amidst the roars and the explosions behind her, she heard a deep voice beneath her, one that sounded interrogational, "Where is Naruto Uzumaki? Tell me, and I may let you live."

She nearly froze, barely making it over to the roof she was jumping to. Naruto? Why? She crept to the edge of the roof, peering over. Below her, there stood a man. This man was choking another person, holding them in the air. Despite this, he seemed to be a shorter man, with orange hair tied in a bun behind his neck. But she was disturbed but the sight of metal sticking out of his skin in various places.

His clothing style was strange, too. He wore black robes, with a red pattern all over them, almost like clouds. In a certain way, he dressed in a way similar to Naruto. Of course, she wasn't terrifically focused on his clothing at the moment. The man he was strangling tried to choke something out, presumably that he didn't know who Naruto was. Before he was finished, the orange-haired man snapped his neck with a single hand. She gasped.

The man looked up and down the alley he was in. Then he looked up, and Melissa pulled back in shock. She had no idea if the man had seen her, but she wasn't about to wait around to find out. She took off running across the roofs once again, this time fleeing from the man, who might have been chasing her.

Getting an idea, she began to fly upwards. Once she got roughly fifty feet up, she looked below her. The man was there, where she had just been. He was staring up at her, and crouched down for a moment. The next, he jumped, flying straight at her. Her eyes widened, and she flew higher. Luckily, for her, the man fell _just_ short of where she was. If she hadn't moved… she didn't want to think about it.

As the man fell back to earth, she was about to move onwards, when she felt an enormous amount of force pressed into her back. It sent her dozens of feet through the air, before she managed to stabilize herself. She was breathing heavily, trying to get her bearings back. As she turned around to search for whatever had hit her, she was met with the sight of a man levitating near where she had just been.

He was dressed the same as the other man, but he looked a little different. His hair was spiky, but still orange. And that's when Melissa noticed the eyes. They had a pupil, but with a circle around it. And another circle around that one. And so on, until the circles weren't visible. It created a pattern that looked like ripples in water. The man flew over to her, much faster than she could think to flee. He stopped several yards away.

"Where is Naruto Uzumaki?" he asked, raising his palm towards her, for some reason.

She panicked, "What do you want with Naruto?!" The man's strange eyes opened just a fraction more, in satisfaction and surprise.

"So, you do know who I mean? Where is he?" he asked. She only then noticed he sounded exactly the same as the other man. Just her luck, of course, that both of these people would spot her. She wasn't sure who they were, but they just exuded danger.

"Who are you? And why do you want Naruto?" Melissa wasn't exactly thinking straight, with the events she had witnessed that day. If she had, then she wouldn't have even begun to speak of Naruto. Just by doing so, she was putting herself in harm's way.

"I shall give you one more chance: Where is Naruto Uzumaki?" the man repeated. Melissa, eyes still wide as saucers, shook her head. Whoever this guy was, whatever he wanted with Naruto, it couldn't be good.

The man kept his stoic face, as he yelled out, "Banshō Ten'in!"

As before, some strange force acted on Melissa. This time, however, she felt herself go flying towards the man. As she grew near, the man reached out and wrapped a hand around her throat. Because of the sudden stop, her legs swung upwards. He and she dropped back towards the earth, and he drove her through a building with incredible force.

Thanks to her Aura, she wasn't dead. She could definitely feel broken bones all over, though. The man stared a moment longer, "This Aura you all have truly is amazing. Someone as weak as you, still alive after that…"

She coughed up a little blood, trails going down her face from the corners of her mouth. "W- What… do you… mean?" she asked. He spoke as though he didn't have an Aura, but since he was clearly human and clearly alive, he had to have one.

He didn't answer. He looked on her with discontent, kneeling for a moment, "Where is Naruto Uzumaki?" She mustered all the effort she could, and spit a wad of blood onto his face. He remained calm, and merely wiped it off. "Very well," he said, sliding a black rod out of his sleeve. "Then you shall face the wrath of a god."

* * *

Naruto laid low, taking it in. He saw the robes, he'd heard the jutsu name, and he'd seen the crater. But he couldn't see how they had come here. He had only wound up here because of… the… toads. Oh, no... The toads must have been killed. This Akatsuki member, whichever one he was, had probably killed all of them.

But then, Naruto remembered that there were seven sets of footprints. The other six had to have been all the other Akatsuki members. There would be time for confusion later. He needed Sage Mode. He drew himself further back into his cover, and sat in the familiar position. Five minutes. He would have five good minutes to beat this guy and any who came to help. After all, if he was comparing his own strength to the rest of Remnant's properly, than they couldn't handle the Akatsuki.

Sage Mode was easy enough to access, but something disturbed Naruto. While he was able to sense Aura and Grimm just fine, chakra was a little different. That said, he still knew how to sense it. The problem was, he sensed six identical chakra signatures across the town, including the one that was near him. There was also a seventh one, but it was different from the others.

In a moment of impulsiveness, Naruto burst from his cover, speeding towards the Akatsuki with his back turned. In an instant, he drove his fist through the guy, shattering him into metal pieces. Wait, what? Metal? Naruto stared at the shower of steel a he pulled his fist back. Right, well, he had seen weirder Akatsuki, so…

He pulled back, keeping an eye on the other chakras through his Sage Mode. As he did, the top half of the metal man's body crashed onto the ground, with its arms ripped out from the force of the punch. Naruto carefully walked over, eyeing it. Once he was close enough, he used his foot to cautiously roll it over onto its back.

When he did, its eyes, these strange… rippling… eyes…

This was… and he…

Pain.

Naruto's face contorted with anger as he realized whom he had just destroyed. This had to be Pain. Between the metal rods and the eyes, it was the only thing that made sense. For some reason he didn't understand, when Pain's eyes flashed onto him for a second, he smirked.

Naruto raised his foot, slammed it down, and crushed the head of the metal man in anger and rage. As he did, he noticed five of the other chakras began to move towards him. The chakras that were all the same. The rest of Pain. Before long, Naruto was faced with five identically dressed people. They each regarded him neutrally, as they stood several meters away. One of them, the one in the middle, had a metal rod that was dripping with blood.

Reaching out with his sensory abilities, Naruto checked where each of his team was. Troy was getting very close. Soon, he'd be able to see the battlefield. Diana wasn't moving, but she was nearby, so she might already be able to see the Akatsuki members. Imperius was almost directly behind Naruto. He'd be coming over the buildings in only a few seconds.

He couldn't find Melissa, though. He searched and searched, but she wasn't anywhere to be found. Realizing what that had to mean, he forced his focus back to the battle at hand.

"Naruto Uzumaki…" intoned the Pain in the middle. "You are a difficult Jinchūriki to find."

"Shut up! How are you even here!?" Naruto yelled in a fury. He thought that, at the very least, he had escaped these people when he was stranded in this world.

"I used the same method that, I believe, you did. The secret village of the toads took a long time indeed to find, but in the end they put up little fight," Pain explained. As soon as he finished, a man dropped in front of Naruto.

"Get back, Naruto! I'll fight them!" Imperius ordered, arm outstretched to the side in a defensive way.

Naruto stepped around him, looking back from the corner of his eye, while keeping most of his attention on Pain, "You can't handle them. I need you to take Diana and Troy, sir, and run for it."

Imperius seemed outraged, "UZUMAKI! This is no time for insubordination! I gave you an order! What makes you think you can defeat them?!" He looked livid.

"I don't have time to argue! Just ru-"

One of the Pains, a woman, went through a series of handsigns in quick succession. Naruto immediately ceased his conversation with Imperius, giving the Akatsuki his undivided attention. She slammed her hands down, invoking the familiar jutsu, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Despite not being their own world, her summoning worked. Out of the cloud of smoke, a huge rhinoceros charged towards Naruto and Imperius. While the latter's eyes almost bulged from his head, Naruto readied himself. As the rhino attempted to skewer him on its horn, he wrapped his arms around it and flung it away from the village. Midflight, it disappeared into smoke.

Naruto turned back to Pain, "How did you do that? Summoning doesn't work here!"

With the same neutral expression, the middle Pain answered, "I do not know where 'here' is, but a god's power is absolute. No barrier or other power could prevent it."

"Naruto!" Imperius yelled. "First, you're going to run! Later on, we can discuss this, but you need to get away! I gave each of you an order!"

Naruto didn't take his eyes of the Pains, "Imperius, I need you to either run away or not distract me!"

"Mr. Uzum-" Fully aware that both Troy and Diana could see the battle by now, Naruto turned in an instant, and punched Imperius full in the gut. In his shock, Imperius hadn't even had a chance to defend himself. He was sent flying, out cold.

Naruto turned off to where Troy was, "HEY! TROY! I need you to take him away from here!"

Naruto turned back to the Pains, ready to fight, as Troy appeared behind him, then all the way across the village. The middle Pain spoke again, "I agree; this battlefield has become cluttered. Allow me to fix that."

Before Naruto could react, the Pain put his hands together, "SHINRA TENSEI!"

A black sphere seemed to form around him, and the other Pains leapt away. Naruto followed their example, as the black sphere expanded dramatically, destroying a huge area, leaving behind a crater taking up half the village. It was such a quick move, but it caused so much destruction. As he watched the devastation unfold, Naruto realized this was the same jutsu he kept seeing in his dreams.

Looking at the crater just confirmed it: This was the one who destroyed the other villages. Naruto dropped in front of him, faced with the other five Pains once more. As he felt a presence retreat from the battle, Naruto tried to buy time so Diana could be out of danger. She may have been childish, but by no means was she stupid, Naruto had to admit.

"Why did you destroy those villages?!" he demanded in anger.

"I sought the Jinchūriki who had come here, so far from the Elemental Nations," explained the same Pain, still in the same monotone. He seemed to be the leader. "I questioned each village, and none would admit to knowing who Naruto Uzumaki was."

Barely after he finished, Naruto rushed towards him, only to be blocked by a giant crab. He sidestepped, avoiding one of its pincers. He pulled out his chokutō, switching it to a gun in an instant. He fired three quick shots at the Pain from a distance. A Pain with his hair in a bun behind his head stepped in front, and raised his arms cockily. Some kind of red light appeared, but the bullets went right through it, hitting the man with full force. Shockingly, however, none of them did more than stagger him.

Naruto switched back to his chokutō, and stabbed at the underside of the crab. He penetrated the skin, eliciting a shriek of pain as it vanished. He sheathed his sword, switching back to melee. With no rest for the weary, a bull charged at him from where the female Pain stood. He jumped upwards, and began to test his theory.

Miraculously, thanks to his training over the last few weeks, and his Sage Mode being active, Naruto was just barely able to form the Rasengan at full size in his right hand. Not waiting to see just how long he could maintain it, he drove it into the bull's head, forcing it into the ground with a huge crash. With a large cloud of smoke, it vanished.

He felt his Sage Mode running out, however. In a last ditch effort to defeat one more Pain, he created two clones.

"Tell me, Naruto," began the leader Pain. "Why are you fighting so desperately? What drives you on?"

Furious at the man who decimated four villages on Remnant alone, Naruto shouted, "I'm going to kill you! You're a heartless monster who kills for no reason!"

"Oh?" Pain responded. "And what of your Hidden Leaf Village? Were the shinobi there guilty of being heartless monsters?"

"JUST SHUT UP!" Naruto roared. He held the technique his clones had created in his hand high above his head. The Rasenshuriken whirred with power as the clones added more and more wind chakra to it.

He flung the shuriken directly at the Pain who kept speaking. It moved incredibly quickly, faster than any of the Pains could track. But without having been able to practice it in months, he was rusty. Just like it had in the fight against the guy with the weird tentacles, the Rasenshuriken fizzled out, doing nothing. Having used the last of his Sage chakra, Naruto reverted to his normal form.

"I do not know what it is you intended for that to do, but it seems to have been pointless. But more to the point, your Sage Mode seems to have run out. What do you intend to do now that you are weakened?" Pain taunted. Naruto glared. He was right, but that didn't mean Naruto was going to give up so easily.

" **I don't wish to be captured any more than you do, brat. You must use my power."**

' _I can't! Not here! I'll just end up killing even more of these people!'_

" **Then let me use the power… I'll remain in control while I use your body to destroy these Akatsuki."**

' _No! You're trying to trick me into unsealing you, like always!'_

" **You don't have any other options. Give in, and let me kill them all."**

' _I'll find another way!'_

" **You'll lose, and everyone will die. Give over to me, and only the human with the Sage's eyes shall perish."**

' _I won't! Now stop! I need to focus!'_

Naruto forced the conversation off, just as the Pain from before reached him, with that bloody metal rod. Before the blond could even begin to react, the rod stabbed into his shoulder. He winced, as he felt some kind of foreign chakra enter him.

' _It's the same chakra as them! That means this Pain must be controlling the others.'_

He wrenched himself free of Pain's reach, leaping backwards. Naruto reached up, and grabbed to metal rod. He yanked it from himself, and felt the hole begin to close up. The Pain began to talk again, "Without your Sage Mode, you stand no chance of defeating me. Why do you bother to fight any longer, when you know you won't win?"

While he was talking, Naruto realized he had an opportunity. He stood still, waiting until he had gathered enough. Fortunately, Pain apparently liked to run his mouth. A lot. By the time he was finished with a monologue about hatred, Naruto was back in Sage Mode.

"Tricky bastard…" Pain muttered. Naruto rushed at him once more, this time with no other Pain nearby to take the blow for him. The force of Naruto's punch into Pain's midsection was enough to physically explode the man's torso. Bloody chunks rained down, and Naruto suspected the battle would be over.

He was disappointed. He jumped backwards, avoiding a barrage of missiles.

Wait, missiles? Naruto glanced over to the other Pains, to see the one he had destroyed earlier stood upright, without any signs of damage. Near to that Pain, he saw another one stood next to some kind of head, with flames around the bottom.

' _So, he can bring the dead back to life? I need to beat that one next. But, why haven't they all stopped, if the leader was beaten?'_

Naruto looked over to the now scattered parts of the Pain he thought was the leader. If he wasn't controlling them, then who was? Perhaps a different one of these Pains. Naruto turned his attention to the Pain that could apparently resurrect the others.

Naruto made the familiar handsign, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Around the blond, half a dozen copies of Naruto popped into existence. Four of them ran off to distract the Pains with a small battle, while the other two helped form another Rasenshuriken in Naruto's hand. The only Pain not engaged by a clone, the one Naruto was focused on, stood behind each of the other Pains, as if using them as a shield.

To make sure he would be able to hit his mark, Naruto had his other two clones disperse with as much smoke as they could muster, creating a large smoke cloud. From the perspective of Pain, it appeared as though he was trying to hide his next move.

The shuriken flew from out of the smoke, directly for the Pain in the back. It soared over the heads of the other Pains, but one of them broke away from his fight. He landed in front of the other, arms outstretched. Once more, Pain began to absorb Naruto's jutsu. But it vanished, leaving only smoke behind.

In the confusion, the Pain capable of bringing back the others suddenly found himself being cut in half. Behind him, Naruto pulled his chokutō through the other side of the man, sheathing it in dramatic fashion. The absorption Pain turned in what was likely shock, though his face remained the same.

' _Not him either… Damn it!'_

Naruto had run out of Sage chakra from the effort of creating not only a Rasenshuriken, but also creating six Sage Mode fueled clones. The five remaining Pains re-grouped, leaving Naruto still exhausted only a few yards away, his clones having dispersed. Wait, five? At some point during the confrontation just now, apparently the one who created the crater had been revived.

"In the end, your Sage Mode will be useless, as it was with Jiraiya-sensei," taunted Pain. Naruto glared at him, before taking in what he said.

"Wait, Jiraiya-sensei? You called him sensei?" he questioned.

"Indeed. But now is not the time for words. I will not give you another chance to regain Sage Mode," Pain rushed at Naruto, who raised his arms in a hasty block. A fist met his crossed arms, and he skidded back a few feet.

" **Use my chakra! You have no other option now!"**

' _No!'_

Naruto formed the same handsign from before, "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

The air stood still for a moment, before a huge plume of smoke exploded outwards. The Pains waited, and when the smoke cleared, saw before them a veritable horde of Narutos. Each of them looked rather grim, as they stared down the 'god.'

"Oh? Now that is troublesome," droned Pain. "But all power is meaningless in the presence of a god."

He raised his hand to the crowd, "SHINRA TENSEI!"

With an enormous push from seemingly nowhere, several rows of the horde were sent flying through the air. The rest, however, charged at the assembled Pains. The female Pain slammed her hands down again, this time summoning a giant bird and a dog. Both tore through the ranks of clones.

His distraction was working, however. The Pains were so focused on the horde that they hadn't even noticed that there was one Naruto who was sitting behind the rest of them, gathering energy.

' _This is my last chance. Got to make it count.'_

He reached Sage Mode, and stood. All at once, he popped his clones, creating another smokescreen. He rushed in it, hiding himself. Sensing one of his targets just ahead of him, he began to form two Rasengans, one in each hand. Reaching Pain, he thrust them forwards, ripping through the flesh as it drilled into the body of a Pain with long hair.

The Pain he attacked went flying through the air as a result of the Rasengans. He fell to the ground, unmoving, as the smoke cleared. Naruto found the other four Pains staring him down once more.

* * *

Troy and Diana were sat at the edge of the crater, watching an incredible battle take place. Troy had barely been able to get away from the blast, while Diana had had to run out of the crater quickly before the fight began. Imperius was still unconscious, as the result of whatever it was Naruto had done.

At first, his teammates had tried to disregard some of what he was doing as some trickery, or a dream. But they could feel the shockwaves, they could hear all the sounds, and they could practically taste the tension in the air.

Somehow, Naruto was fighting evenly with all six of them at once. Somehow, Naruto had the ability to make clones, despite having a speed semblance. Somehow, Naruto could throw his Aura around as a weapon. He also didn't seem to be fazed by the giant monsters that one of them kept creating.

Imperius began to stir, but it seemed as though it would be a while before he woke. As Troy and Diana kept watching, an enormous cloud of white smoke appeared. Behind it, there was revealed to be an army of Narutos. Troy's jaw dropped. But when one of his opponents defeated over half of them by doing nothing at all, it nearly hit the floor.

"What in the world is going on? How is he doing this?" he asked, as if Diana would know.

* * *

With four Pains left, Naruto focused on the Pain that could absorb his jutsu. That one would be the most difficult, he was sure. He would have to rely on just his taijutsu and chokutō, enhanced by his speed. Well, at least he'd had practice. After several months spent here, working on those two things, he felt like he could probably pull it off.

He bent down, one knee touching the ground, hands in front of him. He took off, right for Pain. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he heard off to the side. He jumped upwards, narrowly avoiding the mandibles of a centipede that struck the ground beneath him. He punched downwards as he came down, crushing the giant insect's head beneath his punch.

As he recovered, the giant bird plunged down at him, nearly cutting him in half with its beak. Naruto jumped backwards quickly, barely avoiding the attack. He stepped around the bird quickly, and finished his charge towards the absorption Pain. He pulled out his chokutō as he swung, but Pain caught the blade. Naruto let go of it, trying to uppercut him while he wasn't looking. He dodged it without turning, and tried to stab Naruto with his own chokutō. Naruto sidestepped it, and broke the Pain's arm with little effort.

He dropped the sword, and Naruto punched him in the side of his head faster than he could dodge. Thanks to his Sage Mode, he was able to add Natural Energy to the punch, blowing the man's head clean off.

Almost the instant he had beaten that Pain, he felt himself go flying through the air, towards the one he suspected was the leader. Thinking on his feet, he grabbed his chokutō, and flung it towards the man. Pain dodged it, but in the process, Naruto fell back to the ground.

' _Not him either… Damn it! There's only one left!'_

Naruto knew he wouldn't be able to take down another one of the Pains without beating the one that seemed to be able to pull him in and push him out. He only had three left, but one of them kept summoning creatures, another had demonstrated he had great amounts of power, and the last one had a metric ton of explosives attached to him.

Naruto sprinted for the magnetism Pain, trying to surprise him. As before, Pain managed to dodge his attack even when he shouldn't have been able to see it. Naruto rolled past Pain, not about to try again so hastily. As he went, he grabbed his chokutō again. It would be helpful against Pain's jutsu.

Speaking of, the dog Pain had summoned before was bearing down on the blond. Naruto was starting to feel fatigue catch up to him, even in Sage Mode, as he grabbed its leg and hurled it into the air. He created two more clones, and began to make a Rasenshuriken immediately. He ran towards the magnetism Pain, and thrust the Rasenshuriken forwards. To Naruto's great shock and panic, it was dispelled just before it hit the man.

Having used too much Sage chakra in his last shuriken, Naruto could feel the power quickly leaving him. In a last ditch effort, Naruto tried to cut the man in half with his chokutō. To his surprise, he managed to get it to cut deep into the man before he leapt backwards.

"I'll admit, you're much more difficult to handle than I initially anticipated. However, this is-"

He stopped, and for a moment, Naruto couldn't tell why. His Sage Mode had run out, and he had collapsed to the ground, exhausted. He looked up, only to see another black sphere forming. He tried to get away from it, but he could barely move.

Troy appeared right behind him, grabbed his arm, and they both vanished. On the edge of the crater, they reappeared. Troy fell over, breathing almost as heavily as Naruto was. "Troy? Wha-" he tried to ask. Troy held up his hand, telling Naruto to wait. He needed his breath back first.

"Imperius," he got out. Naruto's eyes widened, and he whipped around, seeing the signs of a clash far into the crater. Huge storms of dust were being kicked up, but beyond that, Naruto couldn't see much. Troy sat up, as Diana walked up next to them. "Naruto… WHAT?"

Naruto turned around, glancing at his teammates before turning back to the fight, "I'll explain later, I swear. But right now, Imperius needs help." Naruto sat up, crossing his legs. Seconds later, he fell over, exhausted still from the fight. He was too low on chakra to enter Sage Mode. If he tried, he was likely to turn to stone. "No… Nonononononononononono! I need to get down there!"

"Naruto, calm down. Imperius said he has this under control. Can you please tell us what just happened?" Troy asked again. Naruto looked at him, trying to think up anything to pass this off. "How can you make clones, even with a speed semblance like that? And how do you know how to throw your Aura like that? How are you so strong? And who is that guy?"

"I swear to Kami, I will tell you after this is over! If we don't help Imperius, he's going to die!"

" **You only have one option left. Use my chakra, and your Imperius will survive."**

' _I can't use it; not here!'_

" **KIT!"** Naruto suddenly found himself inside his mind **.** The fox was glared even more darkly than usual. **"You're going to be captured if you don't. Use my chakra!"**

"But-" Naruto tried to argue.

" **And if you get captured, I get captured! So, prevent that, and use my chakra!"**

"But I might hurt my friends!"

" **And the human with the Sage's eyes has already done that once!"**

Silence. It lasted for a while, between the seething Kyūbi, and Naruto staring blankly at him. Finally, Naruto asked, "Wh-What?"

" **Yes, brat! You felt it earlier, too! This human skewered that 'partner' of yours!"**

Naruto just… froze. He realized he had forgotten about that. When he'd checked for Melissa's chakra earlier…

"Kyūbi… Give me chakra."

" **Finally!"**

Naruto exited his mind, and found the chakra being delivered to him in spades. He took just enough to get the red eyes. He didn't bother turning to his teammates as he said, **"Stay back."**

He bent, left leg stretched fully in front of him, right leg bent behind him. With a colossal push, he left the ground. He found himself high above the clouds of dust, looking down on them, scanning for where the fighters were.

He'd been outside the crater for roughly fifteen seconds. And in that time, one of them had done _something_ to kick up this much dirt. He rocketed down into the cloud, landing with a crash on one knee. He heard the sounds of a battle nearby, several meters behind him.

"Begone. You cannot hope to defeat a god," Naruto heard the same monotone voice between what sounded like gusts of wind.

"Shut up! You're just a monster who destroys village after village for fun!" Imperius shouted back.

Naruto turned, standing as he did. He ran for the sounds, looking about wildly for any sign of them. Something flew from out of the dust, ramming right into Naruto. Both Naruto and it flew a few more feet, sliding for good measure. Pushing it off of himself, Naruto saw it was Imperius, and he had been knocked unconscious.

The blond stood, facing the direction Imperius had flown from. He raced forwards, waiting for something to appear. By now, the dust had begun to settle, as a result of the fight dying down. Naruto kept looking around, stopping as quickly as he could once he saw one of the Pains. Without thinking, he flung himself at the Akatsuki, thrusting his fist forwards. By the time he realized which Pain it was, he had already been sent flying away.

The magnetism Pain rushed forward, pulling another metal rod from his sleeve. Landing on his back, then flipping through the air onto his feet, Naruto met him with his chokutō. Locked in a short stalemate, Naruto switched over to a pistol, with the blade still locked against the rod. He was able to shoot at a downwards angle, hitting Pain's knee and foot.

The man jumped backwards, inspecting the damage. It didn't seem to do anything notable, because Pain raised his hand once more after a second. Naruto braced himself. "Banshō Ten'in!"

Naruto began to fly towards the man, but he stabbed his blade into the ground deeply, and used it to anchor himself. The force died down, and Naruto still stood several feet away from Pain. He pulled his weapon from the ground, holding to his side, as he rushed forwards once more, swinging it upwards once he was close enough.

His strike was intercepted by the metal Pain. Naruto's strike hit him just under the arm, severing, to Naruto's surprise, three arms. Naruto recovered quickly, grabbing the man's head and driving downwards into his knee. He could feel the metal face dent slightly under the impact.

The metal Pain fell to the ground, either defeated or in great pain, and Naruto tried again to stab through the other Pain, only to be flung upwards into the air uncontrollably. He fell back to the ground from several stories into the air, crashing into the ground. He stood shakily, able to tell he wasn't going to win like this.

' _Kyūbi! I need a little more chakra!'_

Naruto felt the chakra surge up again, and this time he drew in more than was advisable. He felt his skin start to burn, and fell to one knee, as three tails formed behind him. Along with those three tails, a shroud of red chakra formed around him, taking on its usual appearance of a fox. He felt his canines growing longer, sharper. His fingernails grew out to be claws.

The boy glowered at Pain, who was passively watching this. Naruto suddenly realized the summoning Pain hadn't shown up this entire time. He looked around for her briefly, but he didn't see her in the crater at all. He could worry about that later. He crooked back to the Pain before him.

"So… this is the Nine Tails…" Pain muttered. Not giving him a chance to start a monologue, Naruto dashed forwards, punching Pain right across the face, sending him spiraling through the air. He caught himself, and spun back to face the Jinchūriki, before he raised his hand towards him.

"SHINRA TENSEI!" he roared. Naruto felt another massive push against him. He tried to resist, but he slid several feet before losing his balance and being sent through the air. He managed, at least, to land on his feet.

Pain flew higher into the air, evidently thinking to avoid Naruto. As he was getting ready to jump, Naruto heard a voice behind him, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

He whipped around, seeing the summoning Pain and a woman with blue hair coming at him. He attacked Pain first, launching himself directly at her, blade drawn. He just barely managed to pierce through her middle before she jumped backwards.

' _So… they don't die to bullets or being stabbed, they all have the same chakra… What else do they have in common…?'_

Needing to focus on fighting, Naruto pulled himself out of his thoughts, and dodged a strike from the blue-haired woman. She attacked him with paper, strangely. As if that wasn't enough, she broke into several thousands of pieces of paper when he swung his chokutō around at her, reforming a few feet away, ready to attack him again.

He switched to his pistol, firing several rounds at her. Her eyes widened in response, and she barely avoided each of them by reforming once more.

' _So that one might be hurt by bullets, huh?'_

Naruto could certainly feel the pain of his skin burning up start to set in. He needed to finish this, fast. He rushed for the summoning Pain, chokutō ready, and swung it into her once more. This time, she was too slow to react, and was cut in half. At the same time, the giant dog, which had been terrorizing the village, also disappeared.

Naruto was about to go after the blue-haired woman, but he felt himself rise into the air.

' _Shit! I forgot about the other Pain!'_

The last Pain was pulling Naruto towards him, black metal rod at the ready. He stabbed into Naruto, piercing through his chest. Naruto roared in pain. As expected, given he had a piece of metal stuck through him right next to his lungs. In a quick action, Pain grabbed Naruto by the neck, and began to fly downwards, dragging Naruto towards the ground. He stopped just short, letting go of Naruto, allowing him to smash into the hard earth.

Naruto felt several of his bones break all over his body, as the metal rod flew out of his chest from the impact behind him. His chakra cloak dissipated as well, leaving him unable to even move.

"Can't you see? It is as I told you: you cannot win against a god," Pain taunted, kneeling down with another black rod.

"Shut up! How did you get here, anyway?!" The question had been bugging Naruto since he had first seen Pain.

He began to tell a story, after he stabbed Naruto's hands together with the metal rod, "I came through the pond of the toads, appearing in the wilderness very far away from here. Without knowing where you had gone, I began to question each town. When it was concluded they knew nothing of your whereabouts, I destroyed each town one by one.

Eventually, I thought that perhaps I had been placed somewhere separate from my goal. I see I was not, and now, peace is once again within reach."

"Peace?! You think you'll achieve peace like this? By killing senselessly?" Naruto shouted at Pain.

"When people understand the pain of death, it will deter them from war. Without war, peace is all that can exist," he explained. "I will show the world pain, and bring peace. But for that, I shall need the Bijū inside of you."

"What makes you think I would ever give in to someone like-" Naruto began to violently cough up blood. It seemed like the impact with the ground was catching up to him.

"You don't have a choice anymore. I have disabled your movements, and not one of these people has the power to stand against a god."

" **Give me control, Kit. I could fight him, I could beat him."**

' _Not now, Kyūbi!'_

Even without the Kyūbi's chakra, Naruto's absolute last-ditch effort seemed to be working, unfortunately. Even through all the pain in his hands, in his chest, and just about everywhere else on his body, Naruto could hear the army of Grimm approaching. Ozpin had said that they attracted to hate and negativity. If that was the case, then the power of the Kyūbi had to be irresistible to them, like metal to a magnet.

"Bothersome creatures. They put up very little resistance, and yet there are such great numbers of them," spoke Pain. Naruto, while Pain was distracted, tried to absorb Natural Energy. His hope was that he had recovered enough chakra to at least enter Sage Mode, even if it wasn't perfect.

But no, his plan fell short. Pain barely batted an eye as he blew three Nevermores into dust with his jutsu. There were more on the way, as well as a large pack of the monsters pouring through the gates into the village. Deathstalkers, King Taijitu, Ursai, Beowolves, Boarbatusks, and even some others Naruto didn't recognize. His eyes widened at the horrible sight. He hadn't expected so many Grimm to feel the Kyūbi's power.

He tried to lift his hands out of the ground, but the rod had them stuck firmly. The pain and worry for his friends and the villagers began to make him think madness.

' _Kyūbi, I need more chakra!'_

" **You can barely move. You need to give me control for you to fight."**

' _FINE! I don't care, just save my friends!'_

" **YES!"**

Naruto blacked out from the pain, and the Kyūbi's chakra flooded into him.

* * *

Troy and Diana could barely see what was happening from the distance they were at. All they could see was some red fighting some black. They couldn't make out any details, just the colors of the clothing each fighter wore. They weren't even sure where Naruto had gone, or where Imperius was.

But they were distracted from the fight when the Grimm began to flood into the town. Troy turned to Diana, and gave her a look that clearly said "Goodbye," before he turned and left, headed for the north gate. It really did seem to him that this would end up being their first and last mission.

But he stopped as soon has he felt the cold. It wasn't that he felt cold, not at all. The air around him was filled with malice, with hatred, with anger, frustration, and a thousand other painful emotions. It was literally rolling out of the crater in waves. Troy could see spirals of red energy arcing high into sky, seeming to rip the sky apart.

This energy felt… wrong. Like it shouldn't be here. Troy's skin felt like it was crawling in the opposite direction, and he felt like he should follow its lead. But instead, he crept to the edge of the crater, and looked down into it.

There, across the way, was a dome of red. It was the same energy that rose into the sky, and was slowly turning a deep black. A blast of energy raced out from it, slamming into the walls of the crater. As Troy watched, the dome slowly followed the rest of its energy into the sky. He felt the anger and hatred surge one more time, then passed out.

Pain watched as the sphere of red dispersed into the sky, and a red creature, vaguely foxlike, rose up off the ground, four tails waving behind it. "So… this is the power of the Kyūbi no Kitsune… Glorious," he muttered. It roared. A feral, guttural roar. A roar that spoke of one thing: bloodlust.

As he watched, the Jinchūriki transformed even further. The energy from before descended back down, right onto it, and the fox began to sprout two more tails. As he did, bony pieces, similar to those Pain had seen on the annoying black creatures that infested this world, sprouted out.

"It seems that this may have now become more difficult."

Half a crater away, Imperius was stirring. He began to regain his consciousness slowly, and for a while, it sounded like his ears had been knocked to high hell. But as he recovered more, he realized that the sounds he thought were in his head were coming from hordes of Grimm behind him, in the city. He rocketed to his feet, whirling around to see the entire city overrun.

"What in the world?" he asked himself, under his breath. But he felt a presence. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was nearby, and it was dangerous. Far more so than any Grimm he had met before. As he to try and find it, he was met with a gruesome sight. All throughout the edges of the crater, there were people fleeing from the Grimm, only to be cut off by yet more of them.

Then, Imperius saw what he was looking for. It looked almost… peaceful, but for the red skin, and the bony armor that all Grimm had. But beyond that, it had six tails swaying behind it. He began to make his way to it, fast. He could tell why so many Grimm had come here. Even without his training, Imperius knew he would've been able to feel this creature from miles away, easily.

He never made it far. Before he could even get close, a collection of spherical objects began to float around the foxlike Grimm. They gathered into a purple ball in front of what appeared to be its mouth. Imperius didn't know what it planned to do with whatever that orb was, but he also didn't want to find out. He dove into a crevice in the ground, and as he did, he heard the massive sound of destruction above him.

He very cautiously peered out of the crack he'd jumped into. All the ground around the creature, or, at least, in front of it, was flattened, until the point it reached the man Imperius had been fighting.

That reminded him… his students were all probably fighting for their lives. And later on, Naruto would need to be punished for insubordination. But for now, Imperius needed to find a way to stop both of these things.

He reached out with his semblance, his ability to manipulate wind, forming a blade of air behind the man and behind the neck of the Grimm. He sent both of them forwards at once, but neither accomplished anything. The man used his strange semblance to disperse the air, while the Grimm just… stood there, unaffected. It was like it had an Aura protecting it.

The fox Grimm, which Imperius decided to dub the 'Vulpecula,' after a name from an old myth, ran towards the man on its four legs, moving so quick Imperius couldn't even see it. Apparently, the man could, and he raised his right hand, performing his strange semblance once again.

The Kyūbi dashed for Pain, coming at him from the right. In response, he raised his arm, pushing against the Jinchūriki. To his outstanding shock, the fox was able to resist the attack, and force its way to him. Pain had to let up on the jutsu, and when he did, the fox lunged forth, chomping right through his head.

He fell, defeated, broken, headless, and unable to move.

The fox remained, however. Naruto had given over control, and since he was unconscious, the fox had free reign. He began to send more chakra through the boy's body, trying to reach his glorious set of nine tails. As he did, a green light appeared around him.

It was that damned sealing jutsu on the First Hokage's necklace. The Kyūbi reached for the boy's neck, where it sat. He grabbed it, and it dangled in front of his face for a brief moment, before he crushed it with utter satisfaction.

* * *

Naruto awoke, finding himself inside his mind. He looked around, because it seemed… unfamiliar. But he blinked, and whatever was different had apparently fixed itself, as it looked completely normal afterwards. He called out to the fox, "KYŪBI! Did you beat him?"

The Kyūbi didn't answer, which worried Naruto. There was no reason he would be silent. But then, relieving Naruto, he spoke, **"Of course I did, brat. Now this world is mine."**

Naruto felt like either smacking himself. Somehow, he managed to be stupid enough to trust a fox who was literally known as the Demon Fox to not take over his body completely . Naruto couldn't believe he had been capable of being so idiotic as to think this would end well. For Kami's sake, the fox had even repeated time after time that he was only helping so he could break free.

"Kyūbi, give me back my body!"

 **"Sorry, Kit. But I have waited for this day, for this chance, for seventeen years. I'm will not give it up now, on the plea of a human brat."**

"Kyūbi…"

" **What?"**

"What is your name?"

" **Why in the name of Kami to you care?"**

"Well, if you take my body, then I'll die, right? I swore I would know your name by the time that happened."

" **You… You…"** The fox's voice had much less of an edge to it. **"You are perhaps the most stubborn person I have ever met."**

"Kyūbi, just please don't hurt my friends."

In the centuries he had lived, the fox had never met someone so determined as this before. The only comparison he could even begin to make was to that damned First Hokage. Even knowing he was about to die, even knowing this world was ending, all Naruto Uzumaki wanted wasn't his life, wasn't power, wasn't anything selfish. He was as kind and as determined to help people as the old man had been. And it began to affect even the supposed 'embodiment of hatred' that was the Kyūbi no Kitsune.

" **Stop calling me that! Kyūbi is a title given to me by you humans. Even if it refers to my great power, the man who created me, the one human I ever respected, gave me a different name. As payment for giving me your entire being, I shall let you know it."**

He paused. Naruto was silent.

 **"My name, Kit, is Kurama."**

Naruto smiled weakly. _'Kurama...'_ At least he could consider the fox a comrade in the end. And speaking of which…

Naruto stepped forward, towards the cage. He stopped just outside of it, and looked up. Comrades help each other out, right? And maybe this way, he could convince Kurama not to kill his friends here. He used the water beneath him to raise himself up to the seal. He wrapped his fingers around the seal paper, finding it was already flimsy and weak.

" **What are you doing, brat?"**

Naruto grinned past the cage as much as he could, "Helping a friend."

As Naruto was about to rip the seal off, as he began to pull downwards on the brittle paper, as Kurama was about to be freed, someone appeared just in front of Naruto, and tackled him away from the seal. Not in a violent way. Whoever it was, they were clearly trying to stop Naruto from unsealing the Kyūbi.

Naruto looked up from where he sat, to see and white haori, a jonin outfit, and a mane of blonde hair. The back of the haori, though... It read 'Yondaime Hokage.'

The Fourth Hokage stood before him, helping him to his feet.

"L-Lord Fourth… Hokage," Naruto murmured, in awe and confusion.

"Well… Seems like I'm just in time," the Yellow Flash replied. "I- I never thought things would end this badly, not after you left the Elemental Nations."

"What? You know where we are?" Naruto asked. It was fair to have suspicion, since they were in a completely different world now.

The Fourth nodded, "Of course. I've been a part of the seal your entire life, Naruto. I saw when you came here, and everything before then as well. I'm… proud, of who you've become."

"But, how are you here? How is someone as powerful and famous as the Fourth Lord Hokage a part of the seal?" Naruto demanded.

" **FOURTH HOKAGE!"**

Naruto had completely forgotten where they were, and jumped a little at Kurama's bellow.

" **HOW DARE YOU STOP THE BOY FROM FREEING ME! HOW DARE YOU IMPRISON ME! HOW DARE YOU!"**

The Fourth ignored him, mostly, "Well, he's a bit loud, don't you think? Let's go somewhere a little quieter." Naruto felt the air all around him shift, and he found both himself and the Hokage in a bright space, with seemingly no walls or floor, but with the entire horizon being yellow. "To answer your question, I'm a part of this seal because I made it. That much you knew, of course. But I'm here because I wanted to make sure my son was never tricked by the Kyūbi into undoing the seal."

"Son? Who?" Naruto asked, clueless. The Fourth smiled warmly, in the same way a parent smiles at their child.

"You, of course. I wanted to make sure you never fell to the Kyūbi, Naruto."

Well, wasn't that a bomb dropped? Naruto learned possibly the biggest mystery of his entire life, and at the same time had his next big question decided. He said softly, "Dad…" When the Fourth looked at him curiously, Naruto furiously punched him right in the middle. The Hokage winced in pain. "WHY!? WHY WOULD YOU SEAL THE KYŪBI INSIDE YOUR OWN SON!?"

His dad looked up at him, "Naruto… I am sorry. Truly. But I believe you benefitted a great deal from your partnership with it over the years. And that's why I sealed it inside of you, so you could master its power."

"Kurama…" Naruto muttered. The Fourth cocked his head. " _His_ name is Kurama."

His dad smiled again, "He told you his name? I never imagined you would… Naruto, I am proud to call myself your father."

Naruto looked up, still angry, upset, and confused, before the Fourth spoke again, "Now, I don't have much time. I'm going to rebuild the seal now, and put you back in control, but I won't be able to do this again."

He knelt down, and Naruto felt Kurama's power recede back into the seal. "One more thing, Naruto…" Naruto looked up at his dad as he stood. "I like her. I'm sure your mother would too. When you get back to Beacon, make sure you tell Blake how much you like her."

Naruto's anger vanished in an instant, embarrassment taking its place, "Well I- You- Shut up!"

For one last time, the Fourth Lord Hokage smiled at his son, before he faded away.

* * *

Naruto awoke, this time in the real world. He felt like his entire body had been set on fire, doused in water, then dropped in burning acid. In other words, he hurt. A lot. He closed his eyes as he waited for the initial wave of pain to pass. It didn't take long to, thankfully. He opened his eyes once more to see a spear of paper come rocketing down towards him.

His eyes widened, and he rolled to the side, pulling out his chokutō as a pistol as he moved. As he did, he noticed he was in the middle of some woods. He aimed upwards, and spotted the blue-haired woman from before. She was the last enemy left from his own world. Forgetting that her chakra was different, he assumed that she must have been the one to control the other Pains. According to her, she had come here without informing the other Akatsuki. If he could defeat her, then this would all be over, and he-

Oh, shit. He needed to come up with a way to explain this. Uh… he could think about that afterwards. For now, he fired his pistol up at her. Several of the bullets missed, due to her distance, and the rest were dodged by her turning into paper and moving away. He sent the last of his usable chakra to his legs, switched over to his chokutō, and leapt up at her, quicker than she could possibly dodge, faster than a bullet. He swung his sword through her, and she fell to the ground in two pieces, dead.

Unfortunately for him, he fell to the ground as well. Just before he hit, someone caught him. Imperius set him down, glanced around, and turned back to him, "Naruto, did you see the red Grimm? I lost track of it. After it killed the last of the village destroyers, it bolted, going so far out of the village that I could only track it after it made a pained howl."

Naruto was barely able to keep himself conscious as he answered, "No… ran… away. Couldn't… fight." From all the chakra he had used, and from all the injuries he still had- which were mercifully lessened- he fell into a chakra-exhaustion fueled coma.

* * *

 **Well, I can't see there being a better place to stop.**

 **Right, so… this chapter. Quite a few things happened.**

 **1) Pain! I'll be honest, the Pain Arc is my favorite in all of Naruto. I'd describe myself as a fanatic. And something I had noticed, as I was getting the inspiration to start this story, is that before Naruto shows up, Ningendo Pain learns where Naruto is from Shizune.**

 **2) How? Well, here's the reasoning. The pond only works for toads or people using Toad Sage Mode, correct? (As I said in Chapter 1) So, Naruto, who wasn't currently using Sage Mode, was sent to another dimension, one filled with all of our favorite warrior teens. But when Pain/Nagato tries the same, he's under the same conditions as Naruto. Hell, he's even an Uzumaki. Not sure what that has to do with it.**

 **3) In case you didn't notice, this ended a little differently than in canon. For one, Konan's dead. More importantly… Nagato isn't. Dun Dun DUN! Nah, I'm kidding. He's so emaciated by the end of the canon fight that I don't think he would've lived long even if he hadn't helped Naruto.**

 **4) So, Kurama let Naruto have his name. I'll be honest, I feel like I could have written that part better. I'm okay with HOW it happened, but the dialogue definitely has room for improvement.**

 **5) Kurama trying to take over Naruto's body... I'll be honest, I rewrote that part no less than four times. It ended differently each time, and even now I'm not perfectly content with it. BUT! I refuse to believe, no matter how well they were getting along, that a creature literally called the Demon Fox wouldn't take his opportunity to break out of his jail of sixteen years. I mean, canon Naruto had to do a bunch of shit before Kurama trusted him, including _freeing another tailed beast from control_.**

 **That appears to be it, leastways that I remember. I don't think anything of any importance happened all chapter beyond that. Also, I made a chapter long fight. So… at least I managed to stretch things out unnecessarily long. I would honestly estimate this entire chapter to take the in-universe time of about an hour.**

 **One more important thing. I'm taking a short break from writing this. Don't worry, it won't last too long. I just need a break from writing in general. I've been doing it so much recently. By taking this break, I think that I'll be able to get back in the mood to write this. Of course, it could just be how serious the last two chapters were. Regardless, this story will make it's return on April 23rd.**

 **I swear, I'm going to stop ranting at the end of each chapter. Just not yet.**

 **Until Chapter 12!**


	12. Chapter 12: The Aftermath

**Well, this is back. At the point that I'm typing this, I've not written anything for this story in two weeks. Typing ahead of time, and the like, gave me a big ol' buffer between then and now. I'm excited to carry on with it, though. After all, we're getting close to Volume 3.**

 **Now, I won't rant about it here, but I'm going to explain more about Naruto's 'reveal' at the end of the chapter.**

 **A few people, one or two, have complained about my killing of Konan in a paragraph. Not every death is dramatic and drawn-out as hell, you know. Sometimes death is very sudden, without long speeches and repentance.**

 **I've written this chapter twice. The first version was a lot drearier compared to this one, and I just didn't enjoy it. It kind of took away the carefree attitude this story kind-of had. And I don't want to do that** **quite** **yet. Thus, the re-write, complete with only semi-believable cop-outs. More on this at the end.**

 **Quick question. Does Dust require Aura to use? I'm going to assume no, considering one certain incident involving a sneeze and an explosion…**

 **By popular demand, Naruto and Blake's new ship name is Cat-O-Nine-Tails. Good to know that they share a kink. Question is, which one cracks the whip?**

 **Disclaimer: Even now, I don't own either of these. 'These' being Naruto and RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 12: The Aftermath

Slowly, Naruto opened his eyes. It wasn't that he felt he needed to be cautious, or anything of the sort. His eyes felt like they had sealed shut. He managed to get them open, and realized he was lying down. He tried to look around, but found he could barely move his head. His neck was incredibly stiff. By moving his eyes around some, he could just see a head of gray hair, the rest of its bearer immediately outside his field of vision. He fell back into his sleep quickly.

He woke once more, but he couldn't tell how much time had passed. He seemed to be in the same room, since the white ceiling looked exactly the same. It was dark this time, however. Not that it mattered, given he could see in the dark. This time, however, he could move his neck just a little. To his right, he was able to see black hair covering the face of someone sleeping in a chair near his bed. But like before, he couldn't keep himself awake.

The final time he woke, he found himself able to move fully once more. The moment he woke, he sat up in the bed he was in, looking around wildly. He only noticed his friends trying to keep him calm after he regained his senses.

"Guys? Where am I?" he asked. Troy looked at Diana nervously. She simply smiled back. Well, at least she was cheery.

"Well… After the Grimm started showing up in the town, and that guy was beaten… Imperius tried to follow that red Grimm. As he did, he said he found you, passed out," Troy explained. He seemed hesitant about something. Some of it sounded familiar to Naruto, but not about the Grimm showing up, and not about the red Grimm.

"Red Grimm?" he asked. Troy nodded.

"Imperius said that it was probably the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen. It looked somewhat like a fox, but it had six tails."

Naruto was fairly certain he knew what Troy meant, but unlike his friend, he knew it wasn't a Grimm. Oh, if only it was that simple. But at least he seemed to have gotten lucky on that count. No one had seen him transform, apparently. If that were the case, he would have a great deal less to explain. There was just his clones, his Sage Mode, his incredible combat prowess, punching Imperius... Alright, maybe there was more than he thought. In fact, Troy seemed like he was about to ask something else, but he was cut off.

"Well, I'm sure Mr. Uzumaki is exhausted from his battle. Please, give him some time to get back into it," spoke a familiar voice. Professor Ozpin strode into the room, holding his cup of coffee. Troy and Diana bowed a little, and left.

"My, my. You do have a few mysteries about you, don't you?" Ozpin said to Naruto. "For now, I would like you to explain, please, three things to me about yourself. Will you?"

Not seeing any good way out of this, Naruto chose the option that would probably end best, "I will."

Ozpin gave a small smile, "Thank you. Now, my first question is your ability to create clones, despite demonstrating prior to now incredible speed. Mr. Resdomindo was quite baffled."

"I- It was a part of those things the doctors of my village did. I don't know all the details, but I remember there was a corpse there…" Naruto lied.

"I see. Why do you hide it, then?"

"Sir, would you want to use a power you probably got from someone who was dead? But besides that, I can't make more than one at a time without being really tired afterwards," Naruto continued his lie, trying to minimize the proverbial damage he had done with his fight against Pain.

"Hm… Though I'm curious as to the nature of this experimental procedure, I have a second question for you. Mr. Resdomindo reported that you refused to obey his orders when he told you to retreat, and then attacked him. Why was that?" Ozpin continued.

Naruto looked down. "I… I knew the man I was fighting. He was from my village… his semblance let him control dead bodies, and even use the semblances they had when they were alive," he lied. "And I knew I could fight him. He was the reason my village was gone, so I got a little violent when I was told I couldn't fight him."

"Well, I suppose that's a fair answer. But of my third question, some of which you just answered… Who was he, and why did you two speak with such familiarity? Your team reported that he referred to you by name multiple times, and also by a title. I believe it was 'Jinchūriki?'"

Naruto flinched a little. He thought up a quick answer, "He was my teacher until he betrayed all of us. Jinchūriki was his nickname for me."

"I see…" Ozpin muttered. "Your leader said that he seemed to be searching or you. Do you have any idea why?"

Naruto's head shot up, "MELISSA!? She said that? She's alive?"

Ozpin smiled, "Oh, yes. She used up every bit of her Aura keeping herself that way, and left herself unconscious for nearly two weeks. She's rather fortunate. Any civilian would have certainly died, but thanks to her training, she was able to heal herself with her Aura just after her assailant left. It seems he was inexperienced with Aura, and believed she would perish from her wounds."

' _So that's why I couldn't sense her… she used all of her Aura… Thank Kami Pain didn't know about Aura…'_

"I don't know why he was looking for me, but I remember he thought that Faunus had some kind of power that could be used for the good of humans," Naruto half-lied. Ozpin nodded kindly in understanding, but Naruto could tell he was frustrated at something Naruto had said.

Ozpin sighed mentally. Humankind, always stepping on the Faunus… Either that, or the boy was lying. But, onto his final point… "Do you know anything of the Vulpecula, Naruto? Your teammates say you entered the battle again just before it appeared."

Naruto shook his head. Ozpin sighed, "Now, that is disappointing. I had hoped we might be able to track it down. According to Mr. Resdomindo, it never actually attacked anything other than the man before it ran off… I believed that perhaps it wasn't as inherently evil as its brethren.

There is one more thing, however. During your fight, you demonstrated incredible strength and durability. The kind that far exceeds anything I have seen in a long while. I ask you, how exactly did you manage that?"

Naruto grinned weakly, "That's four questions, sir."

Ozpin chuckled to himself. "Indeed, it is. Very well, I shall leave you now. I believe Ms. Belladonna will want to speak to you next. She has been quite persistent, coming here during most of her free time. However, I shall wish for you to explain more at a later date. Including why you displayed incredible insubordination to Mr. Resdomindo."

Naruto laid back, having half ignored the latter part of what Ozpin told him. So, Blake was worried, eh? Ozpin left, leaving the room quiet. That is, until the doors opened again nearly an hour later, and Blake burst into the room. Her eyes shot over to Naruto, and she seemed to relax.

Naruto grinned, "Gee, didn't take you for a worrier."

She rolled her eyes, "Oh, shut up. I'm just glad you're awake. Do you realize how long you've been out?"

"No, why?" Naruto replied. She sat down on the bed, next to him.

"Naruto, you've been in a coma for almost a month," she explained.

"A MONTH?!" Naruto shouted. Blake jumped, looking rather catlike, "But, how? When?"

' _Kurama?'_

Nothing. After a moment, Blake spoke again, "Are you ok?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I… I'm fine. I just- A month?"

The fox must have been more than a little upset about the seal being restored, and held off on trying to heal Naruto. Still, a month-long coma for chakra exhaustion was a little extreme. The worst Naruto had ever heard of was someone who had been out for two weeks.

Blake smiled, "But, you're awake now. Ruby's going to be over the moon. She was really worried, because the doctors and nurses here said that they couldn't tell why you were even in a coma. Their best guess was running out of Aura, since they couldn't get the machine to register yours."

Well, at least it gave him an excuse. "Yeah," he lied. "I ended up using up all of it when I was fighting Pain."

Blake looked confused, "You used all of your Aura fighting off the pain?"

He chuckled at her confusion, "No, fighting Pain. That was the guy's name."

"Wait, which of their names was Pain? Who named him that?" Blake asked. Naruto shrugged.

"Well, they were all controlled by one guy. And I mean, he wanted to achieve world peace through pain, so that might have been it," he answered. "He was a weird guy."

"Huh. And I thought my mission ended poorly."

He looked at her with curiosity, "What happened on yours?"

"We went to a place called Mountain Glenn, Ruby fell in a hole, and Torchwick blew up a train. Then there was the whole thing with Vale being attacked by Grimm- It was a pretty long day, overall," Blake responded.

"Wait, how did all of that happen?"

"Do you have time to hear a long story?"

"Well, I'm not going anywhere… so, yeah."

* * *

"NARUTO!"

Naruto stared with wide eyes as Ruby tackled him to the bed in an excited hug. It wasn't that he had doubted Blake, but he still wasn't prepared for Ruby's bullet-hug. He looked up from the girl to the door, where Yang and Troy were stood, the former barely concealing a grin and a laugh. He turned back to Ruby.

"Hey, Ruby. How ya doin?" he asked. She beamed up at him. He smiled back.

"I'm fine. I'm more worried about you, Naruto. Blake told us you woke up yesterday. What happened?"

"Ah, nothing. Used up all of my Aura fighting," he explained. Over by the door, Troy nodded in agreement. He had seen the fight, and with everything that Naruto did, it wasn't surprising.

He walked over to the bed, "So, Naruto… how did you throw your Aura like that, anyway?"

"A lot of practice and training. With a few rocks as targets," Naruto answered sarcastically. Troy rolled his eyes. "Honestly, I'm not sure how it works. I just kind of… do it. I can only do it when I use dust in my Rasengan." He hoped that was at least a little convincing. Yang walked to the other side of his bed.

"Whiskers, you are just full of surprises, aren't you?"

He grinned sheepishly, hand behind his head, "Yeah, I guess. So, what about you two? Blake told me about your mission, and I was wondering… Ruby, why didn't you wake up any of your teammates to get help?"

"Uh… I didn't want to bother them?" she said unsurely. Naruto shook his head. "Hey, didn't you punch your huntsman?"

"Oh, shut up," he said dismissively. "So, how much have I missed, anyway?"

Yang answered, "Well, the qualifiers for the Vytal tournament are in a week. The tournament itself starts about a week after that. Besides that, Ruby beat Cardin in a spar!" She sounded excited. Ruby blushed lightly from the praise.

"Oh, it was nothing. He's just really slow," mumbled the silver-eyed girl.

Naruto wrapped an arm around her shoulder, dramatically gesturing with his other hand, "You've done a great job, Ruby!"

She blushed deeper, "Oh, stop it."

"Anything else exciting happen?" Naruto asked, turning back to Yang. She thought for a moment.

"No, not really…" All of a sudden, her expression shifted into interest, and she leaned over to Naruto. "But, what happened on your mission, exactly?"

He began to tell the story, largely skimming through the first several days, before he got to the part where Pain appeared, and Troy had taken Naruto from the crater, "So, I used my fox side, and jumped back into the fight. But Pain had some weird power that he used to fling me from the crater, way out into the woods. I only woke up before Imperius found me."

Troy seemed confused, "What do you mean you 'used your fox side?'"

"Didn't Melissa ever tell you? I don't have a great way to explain it…" Naruto answered. "I get red eyes, and I have more stamina and strength. The tradeoff is I'm more feral, and have a harder time controlling myself."

Ruby stared with amazement, "That's cool!" Yang snickered at her sister. "What? It's like he has two semblances! Cause ya know… the red eyes, the strength… doesn't that remind you of someone, Yang?"

Before Yang could answer, Troy spoke up, "That does remind me: How did you make those clones, Naruto?" That caught the sister's attention. Making clones was definitely a semblance, and no one could have two.

"Oh, uh… Well, it's just something I have from my village. I'm not good at it either; I can only make one without passing out."

Troy frowned, "Wait, but didn't you make an army of them? Or am I misremembering that?"

"I definitely can't make an army, Troy. Did you hit your head that day?" Naruto lied. This was getting dangerously close to the truth. Luckily, Troy was apparently doubtful of his memory.

Troy nodded. "I thought it was strange. But what do you mean-," he said.

"Hey, Naruto?" Ruby asked suddenly, cutting off Troy. He looked over to her. "Blake said you said the guy's name was Pain…" He nodded affirmatively. "How come people are calling him a god?"

Naruto scowled. Ruby flinched a little, and he lightened up. "He had a big head because of his powers. He always called himself a god, and I guess people are willing to justify things any way they can."

"But he wasn't a god, right? Wasn't he evil?" Ruby asked. "Why do people look up to him?"

Naruto reached over and ruffled her hair a little, "Well, not everybody's as smart as you are, Ruby. They think he was divine and couldn't do anything wrong."

Ruby blushed more under the praise, even if she still seemed agitated. Troy, not having any further investment in the conversation at hand, left the hospital room. Naruto lifted his legs up off the bed, stretching them out. They were stiff as a bone, after not being used for a month.

"Hey, so, Whiskers?" Naruto glanced over to Ruby's sister. "Why did you take so much longer to wake up than your partner?"

He thought for a moment, then answered, "I guess it might have been from how tired I was. I mean, I fought against a guy strong enough to be called a god, so…" Truthfully, Naruto wasn't sure why it had taken a month for him to recover. Usually, he could get up from chakra exhaustion after a good night's sleep. Though, now he thought about it, he had used up all of his own chakra. Only Kurama's had kept him alive after that. Speaking of the fox…

' _Kurama?'_

Still nothing. The fox must have been upset about being resealed. He hadn't spoken to Naruto in the two days since he'd woken. The doctors were making him stay for another day or so, because he 'needed rest.' That seemed doubtful, seeing as how he just slept for a month.

Though he was sure Ruby and Yang could have kept talking to him for hours, Naruto could tell from the way the room began to darken, as well as the fact that he could see outside, that night was falling. A doctor entered, and more or less kicked the sisters out. Yang told Naruto they'd come by again with Blake the next day, then followed her little sister out.

* * *

 _The man was gone. In his place, a crater. I frowned. It seemed familiar. And different._

 _The man was back. He was in front of me. He reached out, and Naruto yelled. No sound came out._

 _Again, in vain, "How are you here?" Nothing. I panic. Naruto tries to run, but can't move._

 _The man grabbed Naruto's neck. He tried to speak again. "I beat you!" I try to yell._

 _Pain laughed. I couldn't breathe._

 _But I'm not me. I'm someone else. Naruto falls limp. He's unconscious._

' _This is… wrong.' But now I am myself. I can see the village._

 _Naruto could only see destruction and death. This was his home. And it was gone._

* * *

With a start, Naruto woke. He sat up it bed so fast that he caused the bed to shake. He held a hand up to his head, trying to reorient himself. This just wasn't fair. How come Pain still got to show up in his dreams? He killed him. He was dead. Naruto sighed to himself.

Only once he opened his eyes did he notice it was still dark. Of course, he could see the clock on the wall. According to it, he only had a few more hours before he was let out of this place.

That would mean going back to classes, though. More specifically, Port's classes. Naruto groaned, laying back down and covering his face with a pillow. He sat like that for a while, and he wasn't sure when he fell back to sleep. But when he woke up, it was day once again.

Looking at the clock again, he saw he had an hour left before he was 'allowed' to leave. Well at least as he waited he could check a list of things that had been bothering him off.

Number one: His team seeing his shadow clones and his Rasenshuriken. Right. He'd given a sub-par explanation, but it was one they seemed to believe. Number two: Pain had come here, to Remnant. He had said that he apparently had come without actually telling anyone, so that was a relief. At least the Akatsuki wouldn't show up here anymore.

And number three: Kurama still wasn't talking to him. He couldn't even enter his mindscape. Which didn't make a lot of sense, since, ya know, it was his mind.

He must have been more into his thoughts than he realized, as before he knew it, he was practically being shooed out of the hospital wing. He was at least allowed to change into his clothing first, thankfully. And somehow, through all of that fight, all of his jacket, pants, and haori remained completely undamaged. Despite the fact that, and he was sure of this, he had been cut across the chest and arms multiple times.

Shoving his right arm through the hoari's sleeve, he walked out of the room he had spent at least four days in. Never having visited the hospital for any reason before, Naruto was a little lost. Luckily for him, Melissa and Blake were headed towards him down the hallway. He grinned, and began to walk to them.

"Hey, guys!" he called out. Melissa gave a wave, while Blake just rolled her eyes with a playful smile on her face. It wasn't long before they were face to face, the three of them. "So… what are you two doing here?"

"We were coming to visit you," Melissa answered, looking him over. "But I guess those plans are now cancelled."

Naruto turned to her, sudden concern across his face, "Are you ok? I heard that you used all of your Aura to stay alive."

She raised an eyebrow, "This coming from you, the one who could apparently fight that guy? But yes, I'm fine. I have been up for two weeks."

"What about you, Naruto?" Blake interjected. The blond Faunus nodded.

"Yep!" He answered with a smile, before his eyes widened in horror. "Oh sweet Kami, I'm turning into Diana."

Melissa laughed. "No, you need a lot more pep and color," she responded. "So, Naruto. We were thinking about trying for the Vytal Tournament."

"That sounds like fun. Especially after, ya know, the whole thing with the villages and all…" He replied, not missing Melissa's shudder. "Are you sure you're ok? You're not cold or anything?"

"Uh… No, I'm fine," She answered. "Well, let's go, then. No point sticking around here if Naruto's up and about."

And so, the three made their way out of the hospital, out onto Beacon's grounds. Naruto looked up, stretching his arms out to either side. "Ahhhhhh… So good to be able to move around again. Wait… I can eat ramen!" he exclaimed. Blake and Melissa giggled at the excitement he put behind it. "Man, now I wanna go fight something. Or maybe train…"

Melissa joked, "Yeah, good luck finding anyone who'd want to fight you, after what you did."

"What did I do?" he asked in genuine confusion. Melissa shook her head.

"Naruto, you helped kill a guy who decimated four towns."

"Oh, I barely did anything, really," Naruto tried to deny. "Imperius was the one who killed most of them, I'm sure. I mean, I'm a student."

"Yeah, but Naruto, we've all seen you fight before," Melissa spoke. "With how fast you are, it's a wonder you could have been as bruised as Troy said you were."

He had been bruised after the fight? Kurama really must not have been healing him… "So, what ever happened to you, anyway?" Naruto asked Melissa.

"I don't really remember all the little details, but I do remember being smashed through a building, and stabbed in the gut," she answered. "After that… not much."

Blake looked back and forth between them, "I feel like I'm a third wheel here… I'm going to go hang out with my team."

"Nah, Neko-chan. You should stay," Naruto invited.

"Alright, seriously. What does that nickname mean?" asked his fellow Faunus. Before he could answer, Melissa asked something out of left field.

"Hey, Naruto? How come that guy seemed so fascinated by my Aura? He said something like 'this Aura you all have is amazing,' and it was really weird."

Naruto shrugged, "I dunno."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Melissa asked inquisitively.

"I mean: I don't know. It's not like I knew everything about the guy."

"So, who was he, anyway?" Blake queried.

Naruto looked down, "He was someone from my village… But, he ended up killing everyone else and destroying it."

"Oh…" Blake muttered. "Are you… I mean, did you…"

"Oh, I'm fine. He's dead, anyways," Naruto answered her unasked question. "Although… I'd like to have killed him myself."

Melissa raised both eyebrows in surprise. Naruto didn't usually sound so vengeful. In fact, he never sounded vengeful. "Wow, didn't expect you to be so violent, Naruto," she remarked. He shrugged.

"Nah. What's done is done. No point worrying myself over it," he muttered, before changing the subject. "So, what's the plan for the qualifiers, anyway?"

"Oh, Uh… I'm not actually sure how they work. I think we just have to beat some other team, or something like that," Melissa answered. "Hey, Blake? Is your team entering?"

Blake replied, "Yeah. Ruby was really excited for it for a while, and Weiss seems like she's going to be smug when we qualify."

"What about Yang?"

"Oh, she just enjoys fighting. So, yeah, she's looking forward to it."

Naruto chimed in, "What about you?"

"I don't really care about the whole thing, personally. But hey, who am I to deny them the chance of having their fun?" responded the cat Faunus.

"What day is it?" Naruto asked, suddenly aware that he hadn't found that out since he woke up.

"Saturday. Why do you think we're not in classes?" Melissa answered. "Is that Diana?"

Indeed, the rainbow girl was walking towards them, holding a plate of what appeared to be brownies. "Hey guys!" she yelled out to them as she drew nearer. "I made cookies for Naruto!" Naruto looked at the plate of cookies hungrily. Another thing he hadn't done since he woke, four days ago? He hadn't eaten. Though, to be fair, he probably could have gone for longer without touching food. Kurama's chakra usually meant he could get by without eating for well over a month.

Either way, as soon as Diana mentioned he could have some brownies, he began to dig into them. Only once he was nearing the end of them did he remember that he needed to breathe. Needless to say, the chocolaty confections didn't last long. Before long, they were left with only an empty plate.

His first love may have been ramen, but by Kami were those treats good. Melissa and Blake were both in minor hysterics over how fast he had torn through them, while Diana hadn't even batted an eye. Most likely because she did the same at every lunch.

* * *

As per the doctor's instructions, Naruto wasn't allowed to 'push himself' so soon after being discharged from the hospital. As such, he was meant to hold off on any training, for several days. Coincidentally, he was allowed to start once more on Monday, when their next combat class was. He was looking forward to it. After fighting Pain, he just wanted to have a friendly spar with somebody.

But today was Saturday. And Naruto, having been unconscious for a month, decided it would be a great day to go to Vale. Unfortunately, since he wasn't allowed to 'push himself,' Naruto was forced to take an airship. Although, at least Blake had decided to tag along.

"So, what are we going to do, again?" she asked, since he had never actually specified.

"Well, back before the dance, Yang was telling me about this thing called ice skating. I've never heard of it, but it sounded interesting. And since I got payed for that mission, I figured I might as well check it out. Also, Yang had said I should bring you along for it."

Naruto wasn't able to hear the entirety of Blake's mumbling, but he could make out certain words like "meddling" and "pushy." Finally, an airship arrived that was heading into Vale, and the two Faunus could be on their way.

* * *

"You know, Oz, some people would consider this stalking."

Ozpin looked up from his screens to see Ironwood strolling across his office, having just arrived. "I believe it would pay to be watchful. After what he demonstrated he could do last month, I felt it was imperative to keep an eye on Mr. Uzumaki," he justified.

Ironwood raised an eyebrow, "You mean these things you still won't tell me nor the council about?"

"My students do not need to be examined by your doctors and scientists, General, nor do they require interference from the council."

"I don't get it, though. Why do you think I would have the kid scrutinized like that? What could he have done that's so special? Honestly, you keeping silent is even more suspicious," Ironwood asserted.

"I might ask a similar thing of your little project," Ozpin countered. Ironwood glared at him slightly.

"If my 'project' comes to fruition, it would be the greatest line of defense the Kingdoms have ever known. Think of it: a world where children don't have to go to war, where androids that can be built and rebuilt are sent to fight in their place-"

"And one man holds all of that power in the palm of his hand. Power breeds corruption, James," Ozpin finished. The general sighed.

"If you say so. But, Ozpin, just tell me what this student did that makes you so interested in him."

"I will tell you this much: he revealed a level of skill in combat that even Qrow would question," Ozpin relented. Ironwood seemed surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Uzumaki has shown prowess, specifically in hand-to-hand combat, that far exceeds the level of a Beacon student."

"How so?" Ironwood asked.

"Enough on this. The four destroyed villages, have they been searched?" Ozpin rebuked.

The general sighed, "There's no evidence that Salem was behind it in any way at all. What happened to them, Oz?" He sounded weary.

"They were destroyed by a madman. I was given a tip that he may have connections to Salem… but it seems I assumed too much," Ozpin explained. When Naruto had told him Pain had betrayed his village, he could only assume that Salem had recruited him. If that was not, in fact, the case, then Ozpin was curious as to what she had been doing these last several months.

"A madman powerful enough to leave four villages as craters? How was he dealt with?"

"I sent Imperius Resdomindo after him."

"Imperius… The one from the massacre?"

Ozpin nodded solemnly. "He was able to defeat him with little enough trouble, fortunately."

' _Oh, if only that were true.'_

But no, of course it wasn't that simple. Instead, two students had almost died, Grimm had overrun an entire city, and some strange new form of Grimm had made itself known. But it was unlike any other Grimm Ozpin had ever heard of.

"What happened to Broadsworth, Ozpin?" The general queried. "There were still parts of it left standing, but there are Grimm everywhere. On top of that, the crater itself is burned and battered to hell."

Ozpin breathed in deeply, closing his eyes as he answered, "During the battle against this madman, whose name was Pain, a strange Grimm appeared. It seemed vaguely foxlike, but it had six tails, and a strange red coat, according to Mr. Resdomindo. Beyond that, it demonstrated it possessed something akin to Aura. He did not see the actual attack, but Imperius describes it as 'sounding like pure destruction.'"

Ironwood frowned, "What did this Grimm do? How many did it kill?"

"Well now, that's the strange portion. While it certainly damaged the town, it never attacked a human besides Pain."

Ironwood raised an eyebrow, "Pain? Isn't he that new god people are talking about?"

"Yes. It seems that many of the survivors have decided to glorify his actions as divine."

"And I'm guessing you disagree?"

"Incredibly. While he was certainly powerful, he was by no means a god."

Ironwood crossed his arms, looking down in thought. "So, where does Uzumaki fit into all of this?"

Ozpin gave a small smile. It seemed Ironwood was paying attention. "When I sent Mr. Resdomindo, he was accompanied by a team of first years for their first mission. Mr. Uzumaki briefly combatted this… 'Pain.'"

"You sent a team of first year students to battle someone powerful enough to do _that?_ " He asked in both disbelief and criticism. Then he stood, and turned to the elevator. There was a certain amount of anger in his voice. "I'll let you know if my men turn up anything else useful." Ozpin sighed, and turned his attention back to his screens. Mr. Uzumaki was obviously gone now, having gotten on an airship headed to Vale. But the headmaster stared at the empty screens regardless.

Mr. Uzumaki was beyond an enigma. He had no records, his village was apparently destroyed by the man he helped kill, he had combative skills to match Qrow, and he had no Aura, even if he had a semblance. Two, in fact. And even though he had no Aura, his team had reported that he had the ability to throw shuriken made of Aura and, according to the blond himself, Dust. So many mysteries swirled around the boy.

"Just who are you, Naruto Uzumaki?"

* * *

In Beacon's common room, Teams MDNT and RWBY both stared at the two Faunus with varied looks. Everything from Ruby's excitement to Weiss's look of betrayal was present while they told their story of ice skating.

"And then, with just five minutes left, I managed to hit the wall a fourth time," Naruto finished. Blake nodded, laughing under her breath.

"It was pretty funny," she admitted. Naruto rolled his eyes.

Weiss spoke indignantly, "You went ice skating without me?"

Naruto nodded slowly, "Yeah… Why?"

"Because I love ice skating! It's my favorite pastime!" she exclaimed. "I get it was a date between you two, but I still think I could have tagged along!"

Naruto's eyes widened, and he began to try and deny it was a date. Blake, having realized far earlier what Yang was trying to set up, looked at the buxom blonde accusingly. Said blonde winked back. Blake took a page from Naruto's book, and rolled her eyes.

Ruby, obviously, was convinced that they had gone on some romantic ice-skating-centered day, and let out her excitement in what seemed to be the quietest voice she could muster, "OH! I can't wait until you two get married!"

Naruto put his head in his hands, lifting it slowly as his hands dragged down his now-red face, "Ruby, it wasn't a date. Really, it wasn't."

Yang, ever seeking to mess with her friends more, added to the discussion, "What Whiskers, don't want to go out with Blake?"

' _Oh, thanks for that, Yang.'_

She had put him right on the spot. He answered, "Well, it's not that, no. I just feel like I could come up with a better first date."

Yang raised her eyebrow, "Uh… what about the dance? Doesn't that count as the first date?"

Naruto was about to argue against it, but he stopped himself. She had a point. He shrugged, "I guess you're right." He looked over at Blake, who was very clearly embarrassed by this conversation about her love life.

Diana suddenly burst out into a yelled, "OOH! We need a clever name for you two!"

"What?" Naruto asked, completely lost.

Yang explained, "Like how we're going to call Ren and Nora's relationship Boop once it gets going. Because, you know, Nora does the nose-touch thing, and says 'Boop'?"

"Alright… that's weird," Naruto said.

Diana looked both the Faunus over intently, until she eventually shrugged, "I got nothing!"

Ruby joined in, "Hm… Something about… Gah! I dunno!"

Naruto thought for a moment. A name that related to both him and Blake… or something like that. He could think of a few, but some of the explanations he would have to give for them made them unavailable.

"Well, I'm sure we can think of this later," Yang dismissed it. "For now, I wanna hear about the mission you guys went on. I haven't gotten to yet. I mean, Troy told me somethings, but he said he didn't see the whole thing."

Naruto shook his head, "Sorry. I was flung out of the crater a little before that fox Grimm showed up. My Aura took the brunt of the landing, but that was about the time I ended up passing out."

Melissa agreed, "I didn't even see the crater be formed. One of them got me early on, and crashed me through a building. Oh, and I… got stabbed." She finished with another small shudder, one that went unnoticed by everyone.

Diana just shook her head. It was a little funny, but she was the only one who hadn't been knocked out during the fight against Pain.

Yang seemed disappointed, "Aw… You didn't even see how it ended?"

"Well, like we said, Diana did," Naruto answered. The rainbow girl happily nodded. "I still say you guys screwed up worse."

Yang waved him off, "Nah… We took care of them. I'm pretty sure none of the Grimm killed anyone in Vale."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her nonchalant attitude, "You don't seem to be too bothered by it."

"Well, nothing too bad happened. Besides, Team CFVY showed up and kicked some ass, then Goodwitch sealed off the hole," Yang reasoned. "As opposed to you guys… you came back with two people in comas, for god's sake. And Troy looked terrible."

"Well, to be fair, we did see the aftermath of three slaughters, and were present for one of them…" Naruto justified. "So, we have an excuse. You guys were just on a train. One which you probably could have stopped at any time."

Yang huffed. She could tell he probably had a point. Weiss could have created a thick wall of ice in front of it when it first began to move, or something like that. From what Blake had said, she was in the front of the train, with the controls, briefly.

"Well, you're still the one who attack your huntsman," she tried. "You're also the one who didn't say you could clone yourself. I mean, come on! It just gives you even more in common with Blake!"

All of a sudden, her eyes lit up. "That's it! Something about clones!" she cheered.

"What?"

"For the name of your's and Blake's relationship!"

"What were you thinking?" Ruby asked, interested now.

"Hm… I don't know, little sis. I'm sure I'll come up with something eventually, though."

* * *

Later that day, Naruto was sitting on the roof again, letting his legs dangle over the side. He had a rather important decision to make, but he wasn't sure how to go about it. He was positive that Ozpin would eventually ask for a better explanation, but Naruto genuinely didn't know if he could tell the man the truth.

In this world, there were obviously no Bijū, there was no chakra, ninja meant something much different, and the concept of jutsu was all but fantasy. The kind of thing you read in a book or see in a movie. So, if Naruto did 'come clean,' as it was, he didn't even think Ozpin would believe him.

But, if that were the case, then he supposed there wouldn't be any harm in it, would there? He sighed, continuing to stare at the magnificent view of Vale, as if it could help him decide. He heard heels clack along the ground behind him, before Blake sat down next to him.

"Are you ok, Naruto?" she asked. "Usually I'm the one who gets frustrated at things."

The blond grinned a little, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just wondering about some stuff. Like how fortunate my team was to survive. I honestly thought Melissa had died."

"Why'd you think that?"

"Well, I couldn't find her and she didn't show up once the fight started," Naruto clarified. "But, she's alright, thank Kami."

The cat Faunus smiled a little, "Sounds like you were worried."

Naruto looked sideways at her, "I was. I don't like losing people."

"Don't worry, Naruto. None of us are going anywhere. We caught Torchwick, remember? And since then, all of the White Fang activity has dropped significantly."

"Oh, I was never worried about him. He wasn't that tough."

Blake laughed a little, "And yet, he's being held in a very secure airship, surrounded by armed guards all day?"

"Well, they're overreacting."

Sitting with this lovely girl, talking, laughing, and generally having a good time for the next half hour, Naruto suddenly realized something. He actually smacked himself on the forehead for his own stupidity and obliviousness. Blake looked at him, startled, "What was that?!"

"I just realized that Hinata had a crush on me!"

* * *

Ozpin sat calmly, hands crossed in front of his face, waiting for the arrival. Though it took much longer than expected, the elevator door opened, revealing one Naruto Uzumaki. It was time for some mysteries to be solved.

"Ah, Mr. Uzumaki. Please, have a seat," Ozpin instructed, motioning to one of the seats on the other side of his desk. The blond, though Ozpin wasn't entirely sure why, sat very cautiously, as if he was expecting to be attacked at any time.

"Now then, since you have now recovered from your battle, I would like you to provide a few more explanations." Though he hadn't asked anything, Naruto nodded, ready to answer. "Excellent. My first question is the same as the last thing I asked you: How was it that you had amassed such incredible strength and durability during your fight with Pain?"

Naruto breathed in deeply. "I used an old technique that my old teacher's teacher taught to me. It lets me basically absorb the energy of nature, and use when I fight. It's what I was doing when you came to the roof that time."

"I see… And what do you call this technique?" Ozpin continued. "Given the way you describe it, it reminds me a great deal of four particular people."

Naruto cocked his head, "As far as I know, I'm the only person alive who can use it. It's called Sage Mode."

Ozpin nodded slowly. Sage Mode... Well, if it did resemble the power of the Maidens, then it would explain how Mr. Uzumaki could stand up to someone so powerful. And yet, he had never heard of it before. In fact…

"Who was it that taught you this?"

"My master's master. He was called Lord Fukasaku. He… he's dead now."

Ozpin grimaced, "I'm sorry to hear that. Another question, however. Mr. Resdomindo informed me that one of these people created large animals from nothing. He said you referred to this as 'Summoning,' but also said 'it doesn't work here.' What did you mean by that?"

Naruto gave it a moment's thought before answering, "That woman's Semblance was always called Summoning, because it always just seemed like she was bringing animals to her. I didn't think she could do anywhere because of that. I assumed she would be too far away from where the summons were."

Ozpin seemed to disregard the question, "Though I've asked before, I must ask again: Why did you attack Mr. Resdomindo?"

Naruto sighed, "I really didn't want to. But I was worried that he would die if he fought against Pain. I knew what he was capable of. He destroyed my entire village."

"Even so, attacking a huntsman is a rather serious crime. Under no circumstances are you to do so again, barring them attacking you, of course. If you do…" Ozpin, for the first time Naruto had seen, looked angry. "I will have no choice but to reprimand you severely. Count yourself fortunate Mr. Resdomindo was willing to look past it."

Naruto nodded, a little nervous for some reason he couldn't explain. Lightening up on his anger, Ozpin decided to test something, "Have you ever heard of the Tale of the Maidens?" Naruto frowned, and shook his head. "It is a rather interesting tale. Some time, I shall recommend you look into it. But know this: some legends are based on truth.

Before you leave, I have one more question for you. Are you sure you know nothing of the Vulpecula?"

As before, at the mention of the strange foxlike Grimm, Naruto paled only for a moment, before answered with cleverly disguised nerves, "No, not really. I remember that in my village, we did have old stories about being attacked by a demon fox."

"And you believe this demon fox may be the same creature as the Grimm?"

The blond shrugged, "It's possible. I mean, I haven't ever heard of a fox Grimm before."

"Well, thank you regardless. That is all I had for you now." Naruto stood, and began to walk to the elevator. Ozpin frowned at his back. He knew something else about the Vulpecula, but he wasn't saying. It created an issue in which Ozpin wanted to both know everything he could about the Grimm, while also allowing his students to maintain privacy. He elected to give himself time to mull over the decision to more or less force the young Faunus to tell him what he knew.

Even so, he had learned something important, he felt. Naruto had described an ability eerily familiar to the Maidens. He said that he used the 'energy of nature.' But by the sounds of it, he wasn't born or bequeathed with the powers, he had been _taught_ how to use it. However, he had said the one who taught him had died, or been killed.

Somehow, even having had all of his questions answered to some degree, Ozpin was left with more mysteries than before.

* * *

' _Kurama?'_

Once more, the fox either didn't hear Naruto, didn't answer him, or couldn't answer him for some reason. Naruto couldn't even enter his mind when he tried.

Sunday appeared as though it would be a rather dreary day. He was sitting alone, the rest of his team going off to breakfast. Naruto, on the other hand, had wanted to try a few things, one of which was talking to the fox. Another one, which he couldn't reasonably to in a dorm room, was practice his Sage Mode and his jutsu. Fighting Pain had made him realize something… He was middling out. A lot of the skills he had developed since coming to Remnant, such as learning to shoot, or fight with a longer blade than a kunai, had come at the price of his other shinobi talents. He had felt slow, facing another shinobi.

Hell, he couldn't even beat Ruby in a footrace. Not that that meant he was slow, far from it. The girl was rather fast. But he had only been able, when fighting Pain, to defeat one body per each of his transformations into Sage Mode. He should have at least been able to defeat two per.

In other words, while he could beat practically anybody in this world, he was losing his talents as a ninja. Although, if Pain had been telling the truth, then the Leaf was gone, and he didn't really have any reason to try and go back. Oh Kami… his old friends were all probably dead. That was a thought he would have to take more than a little time to get used to. Sakura, Baa-chan, Kakashi-sensei…

For the first time since he was added to Team MDNT, Naruto found himself wishing he had never come to this world. If he had been able to get to Konoha… Well, he might have been able to beat Pain, and not let everyone die. If he hadn't been so hasty to get here, if he had waited for Lady Shima to summon him…

But then again… he hadn't even mastered Sage Mode by that point. His Frog Kata was poor. He was barely proficient with the Rasenshuriken. And on top of all of that, he would have only had five minutes, tops. So perhaps he had abandoned his village. But at least he could say he had protected the rest of the Elemental Nations. Unless the Akatsuki could somehow get their hands on the Kyūbi's chakra from somewhere else, then they couldn't finish their plan.

Even so, it didn't particularly mean he was happy with the result. Far from it. He resolved to train even harder than before, to make sure he could prevent this from happening again.

* * *

For some reason, lunch was a rather grim affair, similar in respects to the day before. Troy kept glancing down the table uneasily, Melissa was silent, Weiss wasn't present, and Blake and Naruto just sat and ate, leaving only Ruby, Yang, and Diana to be energetic and goofy. Team JNPR was training once again.

"So, Naruto?" Ruby asked while the blond looked at her over his ramen. "How _do_ you make clones?"

Blake looked at him, interested. After all, she had never met another person who could make clones. She had meant to ask about it, but never remembered to while they had been skating. Naruto put down his ramen, "I just exert my Aura a little, and it forms a clone. Takes a lot of Aura to make it solid, though."

He left out that while it did take a lot of 'Aura,' he had _far_ more than enough to pull it off. Ruby cocked her head, "Well, I assumed so, but I meant how you _can._ No one has two semblances like that." Troy looked down the table again, listening in. In fact, they all were. Naruto began to sort-of shrink in on himself.

Seeing no way out, he stood, and left after saying, "Nothing. Don't worry about it." His tone sent exactly the message he was hoping it would. He had meant it to sound like it brought up bad memories, to match what he had told Ozpin.

Of course, that did mean he wouldn't be able to finish his ramen. Oh, well. But, what to do now? There was a rather horrible downpour outside, making it more than a little unfortunate that he had to walk outside in order to go anywhere. He might have considered going to the Emerald Forest for some training, but with this rainstorm, it was unlikely.

' _Doesn't Beacon have training rooms?'_

He was fairly certain they did. He remembered that a lot of teams used them to train together, since it was a safer environment than that of the Forest. Come to think of it, Team JNPR was training now, and probably using one of them.

By the time he found where the building that house them was, he was soaked to his skin. Even through the haori the almost seemed the repel rain. Or maybe it just seemed like it did. Either way, he made his way down through the halls, looking for either a room he could use, or Team JNPR. He ended up finding Team JNPR first. Jaune appeared to have just lost a match to Pyrrha, and Ren and Nora with off to the side, spectating.

Ren was the first to notice the new arrival, "Hey, Naruto." The rest of his team looked over to the door, where Naruto was stood. Jaune gave a half-hearted wave from the ground.

"Hey. Would you mind if I joined in?" he asked.

"Not at all," Pyrrha answered, gesturing for him to enter. He walked in, headed over to where Nora and Ren were stood. Jaune stood up, panting heavily. He picked up his sword, while Pyrrha watched with minor concern. "Are you sure you want to keep going, Jaune? We've been doing this for a half an hour, now."

For some reason Naruto didn't get, Jaune glanced over to where his teammates and the blond were, then turned back to Pyrrha with a thumbs up. She sighed in resignation, and readied her lance. Ren called out, "Begin!"

Jaune raised his shield instantly, meeting Pyrrha's thrown lance, and deflecting back towards her, but far over her shoulder. She rolled backwards, pulling in off the ground as she went. Jaune charged forward, and she brought her sword up just in time to meet his strike. From her kneeling position, she swept her leg under his feet, knocking him off balance, and sending him sprawling to the ground. He recovered quickly, and the two found themselves standing a short distance apart.

Jaune was breathing wearily as he blocked Pyrrha's downwards swipe, countering with his own upwards strike while he held his shield against her sword. She stepped back, then swung from his left with her spear. He couldn't block this one, and, seemingly not for the first time that day, he was laid flat on his back, defeated.

"Jaune, I think that'll be it for today," Pyrrha said, leaning over him with worry. He'd been pushing himself so hard lately, and she couldn't tell why. He nodded in defeated compliance, standing and walking over to the side. "Naruto? You said you wanted to join in?" The blond's eyes lit up, and he gave his signature grin.

He strode over the face her, pulling out his chokutō. He asked an interesting question, "So, are we not using Semblances? 'Cause I'd like to be able to fight using my sword." Pyrrha rolled her eyes in amusement, and nodded. He grinned again. Ren gave the familiar shout to begin.

Immediately, Naruto jumped backwards, flipping over in midair, and shooting at her from up high. She deflected the bullets with her shield, then rushed forward to strike when he landed. He was already switched to his chokutō by the time he was in front of her, and blocked her strike off to the side. He smirked, and swept his foot under hers in a familiar motion.

She slammed her hands into the ground, using them to push herself back into the air, and landing on her feet. Naruto gave her no time to recover, already attacking her relentlessly with his blade. Interestingly, he was wielding it with one hand. Granted, it was a one-handed weapon, but he had been using two hands a moment ago. A blue light answered her unasked question. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him forming an orb in his palm.

Forgetting what had happened the last two times he had used the Rasengan against someone with Aura, Naruto thrust the small one in his hand into Pyrrha's stomach while he distracted her with a swipe from the right. She held up her shield to her left, but didn't have many options for the right beyond her sword. He wound his hand around the blade, and pushed her back several feet from the force of the technique. He needed to perfect it so that he could use more power, and at least knock his opponents over. He also needed to remember that it hurt him. He shook his hand vigorously.

As it was, Pyrrha regarded him more cautiously, readying her shield for his next attack. She called out, "What was that?" Whatever it was, it seemed to be a bit of a double-edged sword, since his hand seemed to be in pain.

"I'll tell ya later." Naruto held his chokutō in front of him, ready to attack once more. Neither of them made a move for a while, each waiting for the other. Finally, Naruto gave up on waiting, and recklessly charged ahead. Pyrrha smirked behind her shield, and held her rifle over it, firing thrice. To her amazement, he reached behind him and threw three kunai at her bullets, deflecting each of them. A part of her wondered why he bother with a gun if he could throw that accurately.

Naruto stabbed with his blade, only to be rebuked by her shield. He reach forward, grabbing her shield and using it and a jump to hop over her, slashing downwards while he was over top of her. She managed to block with her blade, and tried to counterattack, but he had fallen back as soon as he hit the ground, gaining distance.

He shot at her from where he was stood, and began to run in a circle around her, leaving her to either deflect the bullets or watch as they whizzed past her. Clearly, he still needed to work on his accuracy. She raised her shield in front of her, and charged towards him, going on the offensive. She began with trying to stab with her spear, and when he deflected that off to the side, she let it spin for long enough to fire at him from the end of it.

He whipped a kunai out of his pouch, blocking the bullet. She backhanded her spear, transforming it into a sword, and swinging from her right. He held up his kunai to meet it, and thrust with his sword. Her shield blocked his attack, and he blocked hers with his kunai. She rolled backwards, firing as she stood. He threw his kunai to hit the bullet, but missed. As she dodged his kunai, he jumped over the bullet towards her, coming down just in front of her.

She stabbed, and he ducked under the blade, slicing upwards at her. The longer this fight went on, the clearer it was becoming who the better swordsman was. Try as he might, Naruto couldn't compare to her years of practice. She deflected his attack with her shield, disarming him at the same time. He found himself at the end of her sword, in a rather quick motion.

"Alright, you win," he conceded. She stood upright, proud of her victory. He went to retrieve his blade, sheathing it when he did.

"You don't want to go again?" Pyrrha asked. He shook his head.

"Nah. I really just wanted a quick match. I'm looking to practice something else today."

"What?"

Naruto held up his palm, and made his little Rasengan. "This," he replied. "It's called the Rasengan. My godfather taught it to me. It's made by rotating Aura in your hand. Thing is, it's really hard to control that much Aura outside of your body, so I can't make it as large as he could."

"That's what you used earlier?" She asked. He nodded. "You said you godfather taught it to you?" He nodded again. "So, what happens if you make it bigger?"

He answered, "It explodes in my hand, and makes a spiral pattern all up my arm, cutting into the skin. It hurts a _lot_."

"Did your godfather come up with that?"

"No, our fourth-" he stopped. "My dad did. It took him three years to perfect."

"That's impressive. Your dad must have been a great huntsman."

"Yeah, he was. He was nicknamed the 'Yellow Flash' because of how good he was with his Semblance."

"What was it?" Pyrrha inquired.

"Teleportation. He called it the Hiraishin. In English, that's Flying Raijin."

Pyrrha cocked her head, "How good is Troy compared to him?"

Naruto waved it off, "Oh, there's no contest. Troy's great, probably better than most people, but my dad allegedly ended an entire offensive on his own."

"Offensive?"

"Uh… yeah."

Ren spoke up suddenly, "How do you make the Rasengan?" He seemed interested in it. Naruto supposed it was probably natural to want to know how to weaponize your Aura.

"First, gather the Aura in your palm, then emit it a little at a time, rotating it in a bunch of different directions. It took me a while to learn how to do it," Naruto responded, thinking of when he won his bet against Baa-chan. "And even now, I can't do it perfectly. Well, not alone…"

"What do you mean 'alone,' Naruto?" Pyrrha asked. Naruto frowned.

"Oh, nothing really. With someone like my godfather providing the rotation, I can use a normal size." Apparently, they hadn't been told he could make clones. Well, he wasn't about to spoil that for them. The more people that thought he was at least a little normal, the better.

Naruto went back over to where Ren and Nora were standing. Pyrrha looked around, evidently wanting another spar. Ren stepped forwards, pulling out his pistols. Jaune called out, "Begin."

While they fought, Naruto concentrated on the Rasengan he had made. Bit by tiny bit, he made it larger, while also rotating the extra chakra. It was roughly the size of a golf ball when it went boom. Thing was, even that much chakra, when it's condensed like it was, is highly explosive. He was sent into a wall, while there was a new small crater where he was standing a moment ago.

Pyrrha and Ren had obviously stopped mid-swing when they'd heard the blast, and they were looking from the crater to Naruto with widened eyes. Nora clapped, "That was cool!" Naruto gave a shaky thumbs up, trying rather hard not to scream in pain in response to his arm. It was rather bloody, something which Ren and Pyrrha had noticed.

"Naruto, are you ok?" Pyrrha called out to him. He breathed in sharply, and gave a nod. "Your arm's… um…"

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I know." For some reason, ever since he had woken up, the fox hadn't been healing Naruto's wounds. And since his healing usually started with dulling pain…

Oh, wait. That might have been because he ignored the doctor's orders.

* * *

 **Omake #3 - Ninja Competition: Part 3**

After Naruto managed to avoid the wrath of both a cat-girl and a normally stoic boy, all of Teams RWBY, JNPR, and MDNT found themselves outside of a rather old looking building. They had been looking around Vale all day, searching for a suitable place to hold the next part of their little contest: The infiltration.

"So, let's go over the rules one more time!" Naruto exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. "So, all of you except for Blake, Ren, and, of course, myself, will be inside here, keeping an eye out for us while we try to steal away this necklace." He held up the First Hokage's necklace. Sure, it might be a little high-value for this kind of fun, but he was getting into this.

"Anyone can use any means to either take the necklace or protect it," Blake picked up. "This includes smoke bombs, Semblances, etcetera. If one of us three-" She gestured to the three ninja. "-Get hit once by any weapon, we lose."

"Furthermore, we have to get the necklace out first, while keeping it out of the hands of the other two," Ren finished. Everyone present nodded. "Ruby, if you would." The small girl took the necklace from Naruto, vanished for a moment, then reappeared.

"Got it. It's in the middle of the largest room," She said, excited to start. All of them but the three ninja entered to building, having ten minutes to get ready.

"And now we wait," Naruto muttered. Five minutes left. Three. One. Ten seconds. Nine. F*ck this.

They scattered, each looking for a different entrance. Naruto, using his chakra, climbed onto the roof, looking for a skylight. He looked through it cautiously, but saw no one. He grinned, and opened it quietly. He dropped down onto a carpeted floor, meaning that only people below him probably heard him.

Blake found a basement entrance. There was a small window on the ground level, and it was already broken. She made her way through it carefully, not wanting to cut herself on the broken shards. She dropped to the floor, landing on her hands and feet, with one leg bent under her, and the other stretched out to the side.

Ren walked in the backdoor. It was completely unguarded, and put him roughly under where he needed to go.

Naruto checked around the corner warily, and saw Yang facing away from him. He apologized in his head for what he was about to do. Faster than she could've reacted, he struck the back of her neck with force, knocking her out cold. Evidently, she hadn't had her Aura up. He caught her as she fell, placing her in a side room.

Blake peered over the top of the stairs, but didn't see anyone. She stepped up, and glanced around the room she found herself in, some kind of kitchen. She ducked behind the next door, and saw Jaune walking past, in the opposite direction of her. She snuck behind him, entering into a different door across the hallway.

Ren literally didn't see anyone at all, as he walked up the stairs to the second floor, and into the largest room, where the necklace was. He picked it up and began to leave.

Naruto dropped down in front of Ren, after seeing him pick up his target. He made one gesture to hand it over to him, and when that failed, he pulled his chokutō. Ren readied his pistols. Suddenly, Blake came up behind him, katana drawn.

One brief skirmish later, all three of them sat with their hands held to their heads. Ruby walked in, "Uh… what happened?"

Blake answered for them, "We each attacked someone different, and each hit. We all lost."

* * *

 **Oh, dear. I can already hear the people griping about a cop-out death. That is one of the three things I shall rant about here.**

 **SO! Let us examine the reasoning for killing a character. 1) As a plot device. 2) Emotion. 3) Dramatics (Basically a mix of both). Melissa's 'death'** _ **barely**_ **qualifies as any of these. She kind-of helped move the plot along, by allowing Naruto a reason to borrow chakra. I feel like no one really has any emotional attachment to her, so that's right out the window. And since dramatics just mixes the two.**

 **In other words, her death meant… nothing. But on top of that, Pain wouldn't know about the abilities of Aura. He's newer than Naruto, who's had time to learn this shit. So, the logic is that she was able to heal her wounds with her Aura, while Naruto distracted Pain.**

 **Moving on, let's talk about Pain real quick, and how he facilitated Naruto's 'reveal.'**

 **Pain served a few functions, two of which were 1) the reveal and 2) severing the ties Naruto has to his own world. Think about it. Without the Leaf Village standing, and with basically everyone he ever knew or loved dead… What reason does he have to go back? He can't exactly bring Sasuke back now, can he?**

 **But as for the reveal… Imagine if your best friend, who you met in high school and spent the next twenty years getting to know, came up to you and told you that he was from another dimension.**

 **That alone would just make you think he was being silly, right? You wouldn't believe him, no matter how good of friends you were or how much he insisted. Because it's just so outlandish. Add onto that him saying he was a ninja who could break the laws of physics and nature at the drop of a hat, and you could sign him up for a comedy club.**

 **So, I can't believe that Naruto, who understands the idea of keeping information secret, would ever be dumb enough to tell someone, no matter how much he befriended them, everything. If you notice, he hasn't said anything of the sort here. He mentioned Sage Mode, but there's a precedent for that on Remnant, even if it's unlikely.**

 **But also, I couldn't buy that anyone on Remnant would believe that Naruto could do all these things. Besides, just think of anytime you've heard a story about someone doing something incredible. You probably didn't believe it unless you saw a video. Thus, somewhat subdued reactions from Team RWBY.**

 **Someone brought up the Council to me, that ruling body of the government. About how they would want answers. If I might remind those of you who thought about them, the amount of which I suspect is very little, that Ozpin would have managed to somehow keep an attack _in_ Vale's streets from them, had it not been for Ironwood?**

 **Now I think about it, they've kind of seen everything he can do. I've got a plan to make him better** _ **eventually**_ **, but for now, he's almost hit his peak. Well, besides mastering the Rasengan, and swordplay, neither of which would nor will be easy.**

 **Although, even with all of this explained from me to you, even I don't entirely buy some of the reactions, at least not as they're written now. Please do bear in mind I'm not exactly done with them.**

 **Other than that, I mentioned at the top how I wrote a much drearier version of this to start. It involved Melissa actually dying, Team MDNT becoming Team TLDR, which is not shorthand, but rather Teal Deer, a shade of blue, several scenes of members of Team RWBY being generally worried, and Naruto being persecuted for his insubordination and the attacking of what amounts to a soldier. I know they have an actual army, but that's the best comparison I can make. I actually still have it, but I don't think I'm going to ever use it. It just read so _boringly._**

 **Oh, and you might have noticed this, but I'm moving this story to Sundays and/or Wednesdays. My other two stories were moved to Saturday, to make it more convenient for me. It will decrease the likelihood of me missing a post date. Check my profile for more details.**

 **I swear, I'm going to stop dragging these ANs out so long. Next chapter, in fact. Take care, everybody.**

 **Until Chapter 13!**


	13. Chapter 13: The Preliminaries

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY. And since I don't own the Dragonballs, I can't wish that I did.**

* * *

Chapter 13: The Preliminaries

There were two reasons Naruto didn't like hospitals. One of them, and the reason that he only just realized, was that doctors always assume they know _exactly_ why you were there. For example, the doctor currently wrapping his arm in bandages, because the fox was refusing to heal it, was berating him for 'pushing himself' just after he was released from the hospital.

By the time his arm was wrapped up, he had suffered through no less than four lectures worth from that doctor. He left the building a bit sour, a feeling which had luckily faded by the time Blake was next to him. "So, Pyrrha told us you scarred your arm. How?" she inquired, looking over it closely.

"Uh… I tried to make a Rasengan. As you can see, it didn't work," he answered, gesturing to his bandaged arm. Blake sighed, shaking her head in mock disappointment.

"You moron."

"Hey!" Blake laughed. He grinned.

"Is it really that dangerous?" Blake questioned. Naruto nodded. "Is it even worth it, then?" He nodded again.

"You've seen what it can do. Actually… no, you haven't. Hm…" Naruto began to think. He could make the full Rasengan with a clone, something Blake knew he could do now. The clone part, that is. Which reminded him, "Hey, Blake, can you make more than one shadow clone at a time?"

"No. Mostly because they form wherever I'm standing, as I dodge out of the way. Why?"

"Oh… alright. I just wanted to know."

"Naruto… how _do_ you make your clones? What happened that let you do that?"

As before, his face darkened, like when she had asked about how his parents died. She immediately regretted asking. "It was something back home. Don't worry about it."

Naruto, while he had never needed it, was feeling just a little smug about his ability to act and lie right to people's faces. But past that small amount of smugness was guilt. He didn't like lying to his friends, even when the alternative was so outlandish that they would never believe him.

The problem, however, was laid out plain and simple. He was weaving a web of lies so vast that it could blot out the entire sky, and then some. All right, so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. But, if he remembered correctly, the only person he'd told the truth about his abilities to was Ozpin, and even that was only a fraction about Sage Mode, not even delving into the benefits to it, just how he accessed it.

In a situation like he was in now, Naruto found himself, for the first time, wanting advice from Kurama. But of course, the fox wasn't talking to him after Pain. Who would have thought that the literal embodiment of hatred could hold a grudge? Although, the trade-off was that Naruto had met his dad, albeit briefly.

Remembering the praise the Fourth had given him, he smiled slightly to himself. Blake, obviously, didn't know what he was thinking, and the smile only served to confuse her. She was thinking that it had some kind of negative connotation to it, but the somewhat cheery smile was sending mixed messages. "Uh… Sorry, Naruto," she said, walking away slowly, just in case he responded.

He did give a small wave to her as she turned around, but he didn't say anything. Naruto was too preoccupied with his thoughts, apparently.

Naruto, tearing himself away from his thoughts of praise, looked around for a moment, trying to decide what he could go and do. He wasn't about to go and train, not with his arm still bleeding from how deep the wound had cut. The Rasengan had an almost scary amount of backlash attached to it. At least it didn't sever the connections of his chakra coils, like its completed form.

So, training was off the table, he wasn't hungry, Vale sounded boring, and the fox wasn't talking to him. And all of a sudden, Naruto felt like a dumbass. What could he do that wasn't intensive on his body but would be productive? He could go and practice Sage Mode! Truth be told, he didn't really need to practice it anymore, but some familiarity after how his mission had gone would do him a world of good. Besides, it would heal his arm faster.

As Naruto headed for the roof, he chuckled to himself. Now that he thought about it, his fight with Pain was what used to be familiarity.

* * *

Pleasantly, the roof was clear. Normally, Jaune and Pyrrha would be training up here, rather than use the training areas provided by the school. As such, Naruto was able to sit down on the edge of the roof, and allow the Natural Energy into his body. Very quickly, after only about half a minute, he had entered Sage Mode, and his arm had begun to heal.

He always found it relaxing, being able to sit so calmly, just meditating. As he normally did, he started sweeping over Beacon's grounds with his sensory abilities, not really looking for anything in particular.

So imagine his pause when he felt of people who possessed Natural Energy.

Not just one, but two people. Both of them had roughly the same amount of it, and each one was about double what Naruto could use safely. That was more than a little disconcerting. He frowned, and kept watching them. One seemed to be under Beacon Tower, sitting still, while the other one was intermingled with other Auras.

Perhaps even more interesting was that each of these two people had Auras of their own. Which meant that they somehow could use Sage Mode, even without Aura. And as far as Naruto knew, that was impossible. Since you needed to balance the ratio of chakra to nature energy to avoid becoming a stone statue, having chakra was essential to the transformation. Otherwise, you'd just transform immediately, at least according to Geezer-Sage.

In other words… these people couldn't be using Sage Mode. Which meant they could just somehow hold massive amounts of Natural Energy without turning into a statue. Naruto was confused. He'd have to look into this later. Maybe if he could find one of these people…

But right now, his arm was fully healed, thanks to Sage Mode's regenerative properties. So for the moment, he forgot about the two anomalies. Standing up, and still in Sage Mode, he extended his palm. Then he placed his other hand over top of it. If he could make the Rasengan in one hand while in Sage Mode, then with two hands…

Before he even started, he stopped himself. Seeing as the Rasengan was destructive enough to make a small crater in a metal floor when it was failed, he didn't really want to find out how much damage a failed Rasenshuriken would do to a metal roof. He sighed, and resigned himself to _not_ practicing landscape-altering techniques on top of student residences. Ozpin might take issue with that.

Instead, he released Sage Mode, and went back downstairs, and outside. It was about six, which meant he would probably find his team eating dinner in the lunch room. Or… well, he could spend the rest of the night trying to contact Kurama, but it would probably be in vain.

So instead, he decided to go and eat with his team. After all, Imperius had mentioned they needed to work on teamwork, and you couldn't have good teamwork without being a team, right?

* * *

As it turned out, his team was in fact sitting down for dinner just as he arrived. Melissa spotted him first, and gave a friendly wave as an invitation to come and sit down. Troy followed her gaze once he saw her waving, and gave a small frown in Naruto's direction. Naruto hadn't even sat down for half a second when Troy asked the first question.

"Naruto, you never gave an explanation to us: How are you so strong?" he asked, his eyes boring into the blond with great intensity, something Naruto didn't understand.

Naruto sighed, as if he was about to begin a long tale that wasn't entirely pleasant. And to be fair, he was. "Do you really want to know?" Troy nodded determinedly. "You remember when I said that back home we got sent out on missions on occasion?" Troy nodded again. "Well, those missions didn't always go like they were supposed to. But we weren't new to this, and so we began to train our future warriors from a very young age. As in, I think five was the earliest." Troy's eyes widened just a bit.

"But after that, actually going on the missions, it's different. See, nothing prepares you for combat like _real_ combat. I've been training since I was seven, and I've had to fight for my life more times than I can think of, ever since I was twelve. So unlike a lot of people here, I have actual battlefield experience to help me in a fight."

"But we all do to. I mean, just look at sparring class. Isn't that experience?" Troy tried to reason. Naruto shook his head at the naïveté of his teammate. Although, it wasn't his fault. This world didn't have any reason to send people, or, at least, students, on life-and-death missions, one certain recent mission notwithstanding.

"No. You'll notice it the more missions you go on. When we spar, there's no real danger. The teacher will step in before anything can go wrong," Naruto answered. He thought of an old mission that he had gone on long ago. "My first lesson about this was on my very first mission. We fought a man who had only become a student at his village's school after he killed all of what would have been his classmates. He told us that we would never match him, not until we'd gone to sleep each night wondering if it was our last night."

"Wait, he what? And his village didn't execute him for that?" Troy asked in disbelief. Melissa seemed concerned as well. Diana, obviously, was more focused on the important things in life, like how many pretzels she could eat in one bite.

"Nah. His village was ruthless, just like him. Those people he killed would have each done the same for their graduation. Either way, you need to understand the difference between sparring and fighting. Sparring'll get you ready for a tournament, with rules and a safe environment. Fighting, especially for your life, will get you ready for anything."

"So that's your explanation? You've been in 'life-or-death' situations?" Troy shook his head. "Sorry Naruto, but I need something better than that. I'm sure Blake has been in the same positions, but you're a lot better than her, too."

Naruto frowned slightly, avoiding the actual issue Troy had raised, "I think you're underestimating just what experience can do. I'm telling you, by the time we graduate, what I can do now will seem like nothing, even to the worst in our class."

"NO!" Troy shouted angrily. "Naruto, I saw the exchange between you and Imperius. He's got easily as much experience as you claim you have, probably even more, but you beat him with one punch."

"One surprise punch. He didn't have his guard up, not against me. You know how you're not supposed to ever let down your guard? That's not just something they say on TV. One slip up can and will mean death on the battlefield."

"But… But…" Troy's argument seemed to be petering out. "But what about the man you fought? How did you do all of that? With the throwing Aura, and the clones?"

"I told you before, it's something my godfather taught me. Well… kind of. It's a move I came up with using my Rasengan, but mixed with Dust," Naruto explained, for the second time. "Wind Dust, to be exact. It gets more adaptable, and I can throw it around without much trouble. We came up with things like that out of necessity. Because of arguments between villages, we constantly ended up fighting people in those other villages." As an afterthought, he added, "Coming up with it took a lot of work and practice, and I still can't do it properly."

"What do you mean? You seemed to use it alright," Troy inquired skeptically. Naruto shook his head.

"No, usually it actually does something. The dust reacts extremely to the Aura, and it explodes. When I tried to use it, it just fizzled out, because I didn't use enough Aura." Truthfully, the Rasenshuriken failed whenever he put too much wind chakra into it. It overpowered the rotation, and caused it to turn into just wind chakra, which really do anything without being directed.

"And the clones?"

"I'm not talking about that," Naruto replied darkly. Melissa glanced at him, worried. He had been acting… _different_ since the mission. Since he'd woken up. He said the man was someone he knew; maybe that had something to do with it.

Troy wasn't about to let it go, as he angrily demanded, "No. You're going to tell-"

He stopped, but only once Melissa cut him off with a glare and a slap across his face, "Shut it, Troy. He doesn't need to explain it. Not if he doesn't want to." Troy glared back, then stood.

"Fine, he can keep his secrets." Troy walked away, prompting Diana to look from him to Naruto, then to Melissa apologetically, as she stood and followed him. Melissa turned to Naruto, who seemed to be looking down more out of guilt than of sadness. Though, she didn't realize that.

"Are you ok, Naruto?" She asked. He nodded.

"Yeah… I just feel bad for causing a fight like that."

"No, you didn't cause it. He'd been acting that way all the time before you woke up. Whatever you did seems to have left an impression on him."

Naruto looked up, just as Troy walked out the doors. His need to act a certain way about his cloning had led to his partner basically yelling at another one of his teammates. While it may have been a good way to avoid explaining, by making it seem like a painful memory, he felt like it was causing more issues than it was solving. Speaking of his teammate, he turned to Melissa, "Why do you care so much, anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why were you so protective just now? Cause you always are, whenever someone is bothering me, no matter how small it is," Naruto clarified. Melissa looked away.

"Uh… well, see… Thing is… I didn't really… have any friends before you. So, I might be going a little overboard."

Naruto chuckled to himself. Melissa turned back, confused, "What did I say?"

"Nothing, it's just that you reminded me of my younger self there for a moment. It was when I learned I could use my red-eyes power. The first time I ever used them was when someone almost killed my best friend. I was so angry that something snapped inside of me," Naruto was being literal. When he first used Kurama's chakra, the cage had cracked in a few places. Though, he really wished he had come up with a better name than 'red-eyes.'

"That's… that's incredible. You got that power to protect your friend?" Melissa asked, amazed by her partner. And she thought she was willing to go to great lengths for her friends.

"Yeah, kind of." Melissa was a little confused, but she wasn't going to question him about it. She didn't know if it would open up a whole new can of worms. He seemed to have more than a few bad memories, and she felt like a friend almost dying would probably be on that list.

They sat in a somewhat awkward silence for a while longer, just eating. Melissa eventually broke the silence with a tentative question, "So what happened to your friend?" Pleasantly, Naruto got a small smile on his face.

"It turned out that the guy was never trying to kill him, so he ended up ok," Naruto explained. Haku had apparently always been too soft, but Naruto wasn't complaining. Maybe he should have, given what Sasuke did later, but Naruto hadn't ever given up on his friend. Internally, he felt bad that he couldn't help Sasuke anymore, not while he was on Remnant.

But with the Leaf gone, Naruto had only Sasuke as a reason to try to get back to the Elemental Nations. That would mean leaving his new friends, however. And he didn't want to do that, not by any means. That was the unfortunate thing. He had been torn between his old home and friends, and his new friends. Besides… This world, unlike his own, was always so pleasant, so happy.

At home, being seventeen and a ninja meant you were a seasoned warrior, who had been in potentially fatal combat more times then you could ever hope to count. Being seventeen here was so much different. It meant being a kid, just learning to fight. At this point, most of them thought of this more as fun than anything. Ruby herself was kind of proof of that. And even though she may have been younger than the rest of them, it was only two years.

And yet, she always acted so upbeat about the fact that her chosen career path meant she would end up as basically a trained killer. Perhaps it wasn't that extreme, but the parallels between shinobi and huntsmen were uncanny.

Naruto leaned back in his seat, hands behind his head. He probably would have let out a whistle, but he wasn't ready quite yet to check off every box on that list of clichés.

' _Wow. This is usually the part where you interrupt me, Kurama.'_

He was resorting to tempting the fox to insult him. That was how much he wanted to be able to talk with him. But no, the fox left him to his rather uncharacteristically deep thoughts. Melissa tapped Naruto on his shoulder.

"Naruto?" She asked. He blinked twice, then turned to her. He seemed to have been thinking for a while.

"Huh?" he responded.

"Are we going back to our dorm now?" Melissa questioned. He looked around, and saw that for the most part, the lunchroom had emptied of people. So, it was probably late.

"Yeah, let's go." They both stood, and began to make their way back. Melissa asked another, rather good question while they walked.

"So, what if Troy's waiting there? And he starts grilling you again?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know. I'll probably just ignore the questions I don't want to answer. I can't really blame him, though. I guess it's natural to be suspicious." Melissa nodded. "You probably would be, in his position. Diana would never really change, but Troy also watched the entire fight."

"But… I don't know. It just seems like he shouldn't try to pry like that."

"No, I agree. It's none of his business how I can do what I do."

If he ever did have to come clean, entirely, then Naruto made a note to apologize to Troy for this. He was lying to everyone that his clones were something negative, and it was causing friction amongst his teammates. Kami, he wished he'd used a better cover story when Ozpin questioned him.

Possibly luckily, possibly not, Troy wasn't in their dorm, allowing for Melissa to not get into a potential shouting match. Though, that may have just been because it was still somewhat early. It wasn't even eight yet. Well, at least Naruto could fill his time with something pointless.

' _Kurama?'_

* * *

Combat class always seemed so interesting. Which was why, for most students, it was the highlight of the day. Naruto, as he was the day prior, was excited about the prospect of being able to train again.

He was sitting with Team RWBY and, of course, his team, while Team JNPR hadn't arrived yet. Troy was sitting nearby, but as far from Naruto as he could. He seemed both angry and upset. He also kept glancing over towards the ninja.

Either way, Naruto was choosing to ignore it. He figured his teammate was probably just mulling over yesterday. For now, Naruto was listening to Glynda speak down below, about the qualifiers, "Each team this wishes to participate will be placed in combat against another team from a different school. Those that win their match will progress on to the actual tournament, those who fail will just have to make do by watching the tournament.

Now, are there any volunteers for the first match today?" Naruto looked around, but saw no hands in the air. It was always strange how these people didn't jump at the chance to fight in a completely safe environment. He raised his own hand. Glynda looked around a bit more before calling him, "Mr. Uzumaki has volunteered to be our first combatant. Are there any volunteers to fight him?"

In the end, Goodwitch just used the randomization process to decide his opponent. He was getting to fight Cardin. And he was excited. He finally had a sanctioned place to kick the hell out of the racist. It wasn't long before Naruto was anxiously waiting for the teacher to start the match.

"Begin."

And like a rocket, Naruto was off. He sped right for Cardin, whose eyes widened in surprise, before he swung his mace in a wide arc in front of him, warding off a direct attack. But Naruto was a ninja, and used to attacking from the most inconvenient direction he could. He found himself over Cardin's head, poised to strike at the back of his neck.

The boy had durability, he would give him that. He took Naruto's attack like a champ, and seemed ready to counter already. Naruto unsheathed his chokutō, feeling the need to practice with the blade that he still tried to use like a kunai. He was working on it.

He moved in at what most would consider a normal run, having a plan in mind. Cardin smirked as he saw Naruto coming, and swung his mace in another arc. Naruto tossed his chokutō into the air just above the mace, then slid under it, and grabbed the boy's arm, stopping his attack. He grabbed his blade from the air, and slashed across Cardin's legs.

Cardin grunted in light pain, and stepped away quickly. He raised his mace over his head, and began to swing it downwards. Naruto smirked just a little, and caught the mace in his hand, the same as he had done when he showed Blake his Rasengan. Cardin growled. Deciding it would be worth it, Naruto made his small Rasengan in his hand.

In a familiar move, he thrust in upwards into Cardin's stomach, sending to racist boy into the air. He, however, was much less coordinated then that tiny girl, and landed by flopping down onto his back, with a rather pained groan. Nevertheless, he stood, as Naruto ignored the small amount of throbbing in his hand.

He really needed to find out how to prevent that. He wasn't sure if it was doing anything beyond what he could feel, but if the backlash was comparable to his Rasenshuriken, then it probably wasn't a good idea to keep using it.

Bringing himself back to the battle at hand, Naruto readied his sword for Cardin's approach. Before the boy got far, he collapsed, clutching his stomach. It seemed the Rasengan had done more damage than Naruto had thought. But, as soon as the boy had collapsed, he stood again. Naruto, admittedly, felt a little bad about beating up on this poor soul. So, he decided to finish it quickly, using the first move Kakashi-sensei had ever taught him.

Like a flash of light, he vanished, reappearing behind Cardin, "Don't let your enemy get behind you." Naruto taunted, only for a moment. He placed his hands together in what looked like the Tora handsign, he prepared for the most powerful taijutsu move in the entire Leaf Village. "Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōgi: Sennen Goroshi!"

What happened next was a little too graphic for anyone to ever wish to tell about. But soon, Professor Goodwitch wasn't sure if she needed to reprimand the blond or not. On the one hand, it was a 'legitimate' move, but on the other hand… just… no. It was vulgar, and inappropriate, and cruel, and several more adjectives.

Obviously, the students above were in various states of uproar. Most of them were laughing, but there were a few brave and stupid souls calling down, "Only an animal would come up with that move!" The odd thing was, not even those people seemed to mean it negatively, as evidenced by the laughter that preceded and followed the comments.

Well, if nothing else, Naruto Uzumaki had distinguished himself even more, something Glynda didn't expect to happen after he handily beat Ms. Nikos. As for the blond himself, he was grinning like a mad man, walking back to his seat.

Trying to reestablish order, the professor spoke up, "Well, that was certainly… unorthodox." She glanced at the unconscious boy. Perhaps in the future he wouldn't act so poorly around Faunus. Probably not, though. "The *ahem* winner… is Mr. Uzumaki."

Naruto sat back down, all of his friends gaping at him, while also laughing. Even Troy was snickering. Pyrrha, who had apparently arrived with her team sometime after Naruto went down to fight, was shaking her head, as if she couldn't believe this was the same guy who she had fought yesterday. Blake was the first to ask what they all were thinking, "Naruto, where did you learn _that_?"

He grinned, and turned to her, "Remember when I said my old teacher was strange?" A look of realization began to dawn on Blake's face, which was attached to a look of horror, as she realized _how_ he had learned it.

"Oh my…" She muttered to herself. Yang was grinning at Naruto.

"Gotta say, Whiskers, that's the kind of move I would expect from you." Naruto raised his eyebrow at her. She explained between laughter, "It's just that you act so goofy all the time. And that move is a good example of that!"

Naruto grinned back, "You're just jealous 'cause you didn't think of it first."

"Maybe a little…"

Naruto chuckled to himself, and turned back to the arena floor. Cardin had been moved off of it by Glynda, and now two Atlas students were getting ready to fight.

* * *

Despite the 'excitement' of combat class, Naruto was reminded of why the mission and dance had been so interesting. Every day at Beacon usually felt basically the same: wake up, classes, eating, and sleeping again. Even sparring didn't help to alleviate the boredom, especially since Goodwitch didn't let him fight for some reason after Monday. Of course, the schedule did usually afford them several hours each day for their own activities.

Thus was when and how Naruto found himself stood over the Emerald Forest on Wednesday afternoon that week. With the preliminaries that Saturday, the blond felt he needed to perfect his Rasengan. Or rather, he wanted to have it 'on hand' during the tournament. And since it wasn't likely that he could make explosions on Beacon's grounds, he would have to use somewhere else to train. So, why not the training grounds the school provided?

Grinning to himself, he backed away from the cliff side, then broke into a full sprint right for it, leaping off of it into a free-fall. Pumping chakra into his legs, Naruto flipped over in midair, landing feet-first on the ground. It was always a lot more fun than it probably should have been to do that. Giving himself a few moments, Naruto entered Sage Mode, to make sure he could still make a Rasengan in one hand while empowered by Sage Chakra.

As it turned out, he could, and it was much easier than during the fight with Pain. The orb spiraled into life in his palm, glowing its usual magnificent blue. And, just to test himself, Naruto put his other hand next to it, palm facing it, adding wind chakra. He was able to add just a little, enough to make it start to produce the shuriken blades, before it exploded in his hand. Thanks to Sage Mode, he was mostly unharmed, and the damage he did receive was being healed quickly.

He sighed. Well, maybe one day. For now, he was meant to be focusing on his Rasengan. Dropping Sage Mode once he was healed, Naruto held up his hand. The chakra began to swirl about, reaching about the size of a golf ball, as a few days ago. Risking it a bit, he tried adding more chakra to it, bit by bit. He was able to grow it just a little more, before it warped strangely in his palm. Immediately, he cut off the chakra, and the sphere dissolved. At least it hadn't exploded, sparing his arm the pain. Perhaps that meant he was making progress.

Which meant that he had to keep going. If he was making progress, then it meant he had to be close, right? If he could just use clones, he could probably make this progress much faster. But since he knew that the entire forest could be watched by Ozpin, Glynda, and the rest of the staff, somehow, he would have to be careful, not reckless like that. Some part of him was slightly regretting labeling his 'Semblance' as speed. His clones would help with training so very much.

Unfortunately for Naruto and his desire to train, he only had a few hours to do so. Eventually, the sun began to lower in the sky, darkening the forest. Not that that was a problem for the young Faunus, seeing as he could pretty easily see in the dark, but it still signified that it was getting to the time when he should be getting back to Beacon, or risk Diana making a poster for his return. She tended to do things like that, he'd noticed.

And so, he climbed back up the cliff, headed back. But at the top, he got a feeling of déjà vu, when he found someone waiting for him. Not Ozpin, however. This time, it was Blake, smirking at him for some reason.

"What's got you out here so late, Naruto?" she asked, walking over to him.

"Training. I need to get this Rasengan down. What about you? Why are you here?"

"I came looking for you. You've been out here all day."

"That's it?"

She rolled her eyes, "Yes, that's it. How's your move coming?"

"I think I'm getting closer," he answered. "Just a little more, and I'll have it at the size he did."

"Who did?"

"My godfather. Well, him and Kakashi-sensei," Naruto thought for a moment longer, about anyone else who might have been able to- Oh, right. His dad could.

"Who came up with it, anyways?" Blake asked, as they began to walk back to the school. "Your godfather?"

"Nah, Ero-Sennin wasn't the one. Our fourth leader did, after three years. He even managed to condense the learning process into three steps."

"Wait, so anyone could learn how to do it?" Blake asked, surprised. She would have expected a lot more people to be using their Aura like that if that were the case.

"Maybe, I don't know. The steps to learn it are simple enough, but they still take a while to learn. Not to mention a lot of patience."

"And pain tolerance?" Blake queried, with a little wink and a smirk.

"Yeah, that too." Naruto rubbed his arm. He hadn't had any major explosions, but his arm still throbbed from using so much chakra in a few hours. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, though. Blake snickered a little to herself at his answer. "Is your team ready for the qualifiers?"

She nodded, "We've got our teamwork to a pretty good point. What about you guys? Melissa was saying your huntsman said you guys weren't great together."

"Yeah, it was something none of us really thought about."

"So… are you guys going to be ready?"

"We'll be able to pull through," Naruto answered. "We're gonna have to work on it before the tournament starts, or we're gonna lose fast."

"That's good to hear, I guess. Ruby kind of insisted that we get team moves together, and we just kind of built on it from there." They were almost to the school now, just entering its grounds. "Have you guys really never fought as a team?"

"Not until that mission."

"How did you guys manage to do that?" Blake had no idea how four people who more or less lived together were able to just never work together.

"Well, I spend so much time hanging out with you and your team, Melissa does a lot of sniping, and Diana eats a lot of baked goods. So she and Troy are always in Vale, buying more," Naruto answered. "So we don't really spend a lot of time together."

"Huh. I hadn't actually thought about that. How come you don't hang out with you team?"

"I dunno. I just got along with you guys easier. Troy's hard to talk to, and Diana is like a child, but Melissa's kind of an anti-social person."

"Wow, didn't know you thought so poorly of your team." Naruto shrugged.

"Well, I don't. That's just why it was so hard to become friends with them. Now, I'd have their back no matter what."

' _Especially after Konoha… I'm not losing another friend.'_

Blake smiled, and nudged him, "That's a good way of thinking." Before she walked away, she called one more thing over her shoulder. "Maybe one day you can help me with someone from my past."

Naruto was left to think, to try and imagine a person Blake would need help with. She hadn't ever mentioned anyone she didn't like much, so he was lost. Eventually, he shrugged it off and walked back to his dorm. By the time he got there, it was after midnight.

* * *

"We really need to start training together."

Naruto nodded at his leader's suggestion the next morning. Troy gave a single nod, then continued getting ready for Port's class. Diana also liked the idea, giving her bouncing. Melissa continued, "So, after Oobleck's class today, we don't have any more. Once it's over, we're heading to the training rooms."

Once again, each of her teammates nodded. They each knew that they needed to work in sync better. Otherwise, they probably wouldn't last long, not against skilled teams. They couldn't completely rely on Naruto, could they? What would be the point of them being a team then?

Melissa spent practically all day dreaming up team moves for them, like the ones that Team RWBY had. As it turned out, having a guy who can teleport with anyone who's touching him makes for a number of ideas on how to use that ability. Especially when another teammate could move at practically the speed of sound. That might have been a bit of an exaggeration.

There was one where Naruto dashed right next to the opponent, cutting horizontally with each pass, before Troy teleported him to another side of the opponent, and he would cut again. And they repeated that. She called that one Blindsiding. She felt it had a good ring to it.

She had scenarios for each of the rest of them working with Troy, but that was the best one she'd come up with. Other than that one, she didn't really have any good ones. But hey, she was still working on it. And besides, they didn't necessarily need specific attacks for teamwork to exist. She was sure they would do well enough just by starting to train as a team.

Ooh… What if Naruto made his Rasengan while she shot through it? What would happen with his condensed Aura? Now she really wanted to try that. Unfortunately for her ambition, she would have to wait through an entire day of classes.

Naruto was debating trying the Rasengan under the table in Port's class. That was how bored he was getting. He found even Oobleck's class interesting, and as far as he knew, he was the only one. If only because he liked how eccentric the teacher was. That, and learning a history where large explosives were used to decimate large black demon-creatures tended to be interesting. Or maybe it was just that he wasn't used to it.

Back to Port's class, however. The blond made a small Rasengan, really just to do anything else besides listen to the teacher drone on about the time he killed three Nevermores, Four Deathstalkers, and a King Taijitu in one fight. He extinguished it, waited, then made another. It really was just him entertaining himself, and it was failing.

Hell, why not go a step further? He closes his eyes, focusing. After several moments, he had enough natural energy to enter Sage Mode. Although, he noted, it was much harder indoors, probably because the natural energy couldn't breach the walls easily. Because of this, his hands distorted slightly. Luckily, he had them under the table, so no one could have seen them. He wasn't sure if his face had changed any, however.

No one said anything, so he released the Natural Energy, and looked around. Everyone was distracted themselves in the same way as before, so it seemed as though no one had seen anything. He tried again, this time going slowly and carefully. Then, as if by comedic coincidence, the bell signifying the end of class rung.

"Oh… uh, well, it seems we'll have to conclude this fine tale after the Vytal Tournament ends! Remember students, there are no classes next week, so be sure to attend the Festival!" Port announced. Naruto practically sped from the classroom, finally escaping the boredom that was Professor Port's classes. He waited outside for his team.

"Hey, Naruto?" Melissa asked when she walked out. He turned to her. "Later today, during training, I wanna try shooting my sniper through your Rasengan. I'm curious what the Dust rounds will do when shot through Aura like that."

"Probably explode. A lot," Naruto replied jokingly. Troy and Diana came out of Port's room, and they began to make their way to Oobleck's class.

Eventually, Oobleck's class was finished, though it felt like an eternity to Melissa. Partially because that's what it always felt like, but also because she really wanted to start the team training. As soon as the class ended, she practically herded her team out the doors.

Conveniently, no one was using the training rooms that day, meaning they had free reign to whatever room they wanted. Although, since every room was exactly the same, perhaps that meant less than it seemed to. Well, almost exactly the same. Some of them took more time to be repaired after some of the training people did, especially when fourth year students used them. Or when some blond just so happened to create an explosion with his bare hands.

"Right, first things first. Naruto, make your Rasengan," Melissa commanded. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I can't really keep it stable, you know."

"Do it!" Melissa hadn't sat through all of Port's and Oobleck's classes just to be rejected now. Naruto relented after a moment of hesitation, and held out his hand, with the Aura beginning to swirl about.

This felt like a really bad idea to the only Faunus on Team MDNT. Especially since he had no idea how dust would react with his chakra. He suspected it would either do nothing, or explode in a rather spectacular way, but in his hand. Meaning it would probably be painful. So he wasn't exactly looking forward to it. He reached what he estimated was his maximum safe size for now, a larger than a golf ball, but smaller than a tennis ball.

Melissa was almost as excited as Diana usually was as she slung her rifle off of her shoulder, putting the barrel just behind the blue orb. "Ready, Naruto?" He nodded. She fired once, and after only a single brief instant, the entire far wall froze over in a majestic ice bloom. All four of them were rather surprised at the result, but in different ways. Diana clapped like she usually did whenever something amazed her, Troy nodded in approval, Melissa was practically bouncing up and down, and Naruto just stared at his hand, amazed that chakra could activate Dust.

"I'd call that a success, right Naruto?" Melissa asked in her excitement. Naruto nodded, still in disbelief. Why, this opened a very small new world of possibilities, pretty much all of which involved using Dust with his chokutō and pistol.

Melissa walked over to the wall, and began studying it. "Aha! Knew it!" They each looked over, as she pointed at the wall. "See here, where it all comes out of? I found the remnants of my bullet here, so the Dust only reacted once it hit something.

Inwardly, Naruto had a thought. He wondered if it was possible for him to make chakra-sensitive metal, so that he could re-make his sword. He suspected not, but he would have to check once Kurama started talking to him again. He would also need to learn how to work a forge. And whether or not the forge meant the entire thing, or just the hot part.

"Alright, next thing!" Melissa shouted. "Naruto, Troy, if you two could try something for me for a moment…"

For a few hours more, Team MDNT, as they hadn't really ever done, hung out as a team, sometimes training altogether, sometimes working on individual skills. Sometimes taking things seriously, sometimes joking around like the teenagers each of them were.

* * *

When Saturday came, it brought with it both a feeling of excitement and one of incredible nervousness. While Team MDNT were glad to have the chance to test themselves and possibly even get into the tournament, but even Naruto was a little tentative about the idea of facing another team. Just less so than his teammates. He was used to this, after all. It was him who had managed to fight off six people at once, albeit with some difficulty, and some help from Kurama.

Although, Ozpin had asked him not to use Sage Mode, to level the playing field for everyone. Naruto wasn't sure how the headmaster knew how powerful Sage Mode was, but he assumed that it was based on what he had heard from Imperius.

And since Naruto neither wanted to nor had the option to use Kurama's chakra, he had to just use his normal power. Which, honestly, was fine in his opinion. He felt he needed the practice anyways. He was just hopeful that the scanners in the tournament would pick up his chakra as Aura, the same way the arena and scrolls here did.

But besides the training, a nice, safe, just-for-fun tournament sounded appealing to the blond, especially after he nearly died to Pain. Thank Kami the rest of the Akatsuki couldn't get to Remnant. After all, how would they know where to look?

All these thoughts and more surged throughout Naruto's head as he journeyed, with his team, to the qualifier's arena, which was just one of the training rooms that was slightly bigger than the rest. And the extra space was all devoted to seating up above, for occasions where many people would be waiting for their turn on the arena floor.

Luckily, Team MDNT was one of the first teams to be called down to fight. They were up against a team from Atlas. And, pleasantly for Naruto, they were the same people he had met twice before. He flashed them a wicked grin as they waited to start. All four of the glared back, as if they were determined to get revenge.

Glynda called out, "Begin."

Troy, standing to the left of Naruto, reached over and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. They vanished, and reappeared just behind their opponents, Team BLND. (Blond) Naruto unsheathed his chokutō and prepared to slash across one of them. He moved forward just as they began to turn after hearing his blade be drawn, and nicked one of them as he passed. Troy appeared next to him, and restarted the maneuver.

Once more, Naruto attacked, this time almost breaching the shield of Aura. Now, when he and Troy teleported again, they reappeared by Melissa, having deemed the move a success. Naruto gave a nod to Melissa. Deciding to test something else out in battle, Naruto raised his palm in front of Melissa's barrel, as Team BLND charged towards them. Troy and Diana went to meet them, and distract them while their teammates readied their move.

The Rasengan swirled into its brilliance soon enough, still under the size of a tennis ball. As soon as they each heard the familiar sound of the 'Aura' having fully formed, Troy and Diana leapt out of the way. Melissa fired a single ice round at the ground, which expanded into a large ice pile, freezing two of their enemies inside it. The other two had been smart enough to dodge out of the way as soon as Troy and Diana had.

Interestingly, every time they tried that move, the Rasengan was completely used up by it. Possibly because the rotation was distorted. Either way, it was clear who would end up winning this fight, as Troy engaged one of the two remaining enemies. Four against two weren't great odds.

That didn't stop the other team from being incredibly cocky and just a little bit petty, since one of them tried to taunt Naruto, "Good to see that even wild animals can learn to obey their human masters." Though, since he wasn't exactly quiet about it, basically everyone cheering stopped mid-cheer, and began practically demanding blood. The blood of that one member. Amazing how racism suddenly disappears when you enter a school that is firmly against it.

Naruto smirked back at the student who insulted him, and, in the eyes of the boy, vanished into thin air. In reality, he simply used his remarkable speed, with no small help from chakra in his legs, to move behind the boy. And then kick him across the back of the head. Into a wall. Hard.

With one guy left, the black-haired student from Atlas nervously looked at both his teammates and his opponents, before dropping his spear in conceding, with his hands raised into the air.

"The winner is Team MDNT," announced Goodwitch. The Beacon team returned to their seats, glad of their victory. And also relieved, naturally. After all, even if they were moving on to the tournament, where it would be much more difficult, they would have more time to train together. They may have used two team attacks during their fight, but they hadn't really done anything beyond that.

The next several fights passed with relative boredom, though some people seemed to find them interesting. Different people for different fights, as one might expect. Naruto watched Team RWBY's match with interest, of course. They won rather easily. The same went for Team JNPR, obviously. Pyrrha's magnetism gave them a rather large advantage over people using metal weaponry. Especially when they never seemed to notice that their weapons were moving of seemingly their own accord.

Several hours afterwards, the Teams MDNT, RWBY, and JNPR were all sitting about the common room of Beacon's dorm building, congratulating each other. And there were cookies and pancakes and pretzel buns and ramen galore. In other words, it was party. And it was a good time. And they didn't sleep for hours afterwards. And they slept all through the morning of Sunday.

* * *

 **Ah, another (maybe)fine chapter finished.**

 **I'm moving this story to Sunday only.**

 **Until Chapter 14!**


	14. Chapter 14: The Wait

**Disclaimer: By now, you really ought to get it: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 14: The Wait

Though the preliminaries took place on Saturday, the actual Vytal Tournament only began on Friday the week after. As a team that felt they needed to work together more effectively, Team MDNT felt this was a rather fortuitous break. Especially when one considers that they had no classes for the entire week, since Beacon needed to finish the preparations for the tournament.

As such, Team MDNT found themselves using the training rooms quite often over the next several days, sometimes alongside Teams RWBY and/or JNPR. There were several teams participating in the tourney, so, as expected, there were also several teams training daily for it.

Currently, all three teams were sharing one room. Pyrrha, Jaune, Weiss, Yang, and Ruby were all having some kind of free-for-all spar in the center of the room. Melissa was aiming at small targets that Troy was holding, while he was also teleporting around on the other side of the room from her. Impressively, and fortunately for Troy, she wasn't missing a single shot. Though, somehow, none of the bullets pierced through the targets.

Diana and Nora were battling one against the other, over in a far corner. And in another one, Naruto, Blake, and Ren were each watching something with interest. Naruto was moving one of his hands erratically, much to the amusement of Blake at first. But then he began to form his Rasengan in his right hand, and managed to grow it larger than she'd seen yet, so she guessed there was a method to the madness.

Then Ren had come over, since he had had nothing else to do. And seeing that Naruto was succeeding at the technique he had failed a week prior, he had taken interest. Naruto was sweating, but he was managing to hold the orb at roughly the size of a grapefruit.

Blake almost felt like she should be clapping. But then, she noticed a tiny distortion in the sphere as it rotated. And a moment later, the entire thing warped perilously, like it was preparing to explode. Naruto faded it away immediately, and rested his arms for a moment.

"I thought that would work better… I guess I was wrong," Naruto muttered. Ren, who had apparently been bracing for an explosion, nodded. "Alright… one more time."

He raised his arms once more, placing one over top of the other. He began to make scratching motions over his hand, in what looked to Blake like the motions of a cat playing with a water balloon. Then she frowned at herself, questioning the oddly specific thought.

The Rasengan grew and grew, slowly. Naruto eventually held yet another grapefruit-sized blue orb. After only a few seconds, Naruto let it dissolve. He took a few breaths, "Well, that went better."

Ren appeared to have decided something, "Naruto? Is it possible that you could teach me how to do that?"

Naruto seemed taken aback, with wide eyes, "Uh… I don't know?" Honestly, he wasn't sure if Aura could be used as a substitute for chakra. While they may have had similarities, they still both behaved very differently. For example, chakra on its own couldn't be used to heal wounds. It took special jutsu and incredible chakra control to do that. Bijū chakra seemed to be an exception. But Aura naturally healed wounds, without the need for conscious instruction from its wielder.

Though, at the same time, Aura couldn't be used to fuel massive, world-ending, continent-sinking, moon-shattering jutsu. So, ya know, that was the tradeoff. And call him crazy, but Naruto felt like Aura got the short end of the stick.

"What do you mean?" Ren asked, head tilted slightly.

"Ehhhhh… well, I don't know if I would be able to teach it. I mean, I guess I could tell you how I learned to…"

"Alright then."

"Alright, so, first. Take a water balloon, then project your Aura into it and spin it in a bunch directions until the balloon explodes. Second, do the same thing with a rubber ball. Third, make an air balloon, and rotate your Aura in a contained sphere, so that it doesn't pop the balloon."

"That… sounds remarkably complicated," Ren said unsurely. Naruto shrugged.

"It's how I learned it. And the steps my dad came up with to teach it."

Blake raised an eyebrow, "Your dad? I thought…"

She stopped, but Naruto frowned towards her, wondering what she could be thinking. "Uh… yeah," he continued. "It took my dad three years to perfect it. He always meant for it to be the most devastating use for Aura. And when he combined it with his Semblance, people said that he succeeded."

Ren was a little amazed at the blond's father. He must have been a great huntsman, especially considering Naruto had said that Troy would have been nowhere near a match for him, in regards to teleportation prowess. He wanted to meet the man.

From out of nowhere, Ruby slammed into the wall next to them. Yang called over, in a genuinely worried voice, "Sorry, Rubes!" Ruby shook her head, dazed more than anything.

"That's ok!" She called back over. The small girl glanced to her left, to see the three ninja staring at her.

She gave a cheery wave, "Hey, guys!" Naruto chuckled to himself, while Blake awkwardly returned the wave. Ruby stood, and dusted herself off. "Man, Yang packs a punch…"

"Yeah, it's what she does," Blake said in a rather sarcastic way. "Shouldn't you know that by now?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know…" Ruby muttered. "Ooh! Hey, Naruto! You and I should have a race!"

Naruto chuckled to himself again. This was a great example of how much more cheery this place could be, compared to his home. "Nah, sorry. I don't feel like losing right now."

"Awwww!" She complained. "Come on!"

"Sorry, Ruby," Naruto apologized, before setting his left hand over his right once more. He began to form the Rasengan with his right hand, spinning it as much as he could on its own. When he couldn't rotate it steadily anymore, he began to provide the rotation with his left hand. It was a good way of training himself to be able to do it on his own, but he still wanted to be able to form it without a clone. While not in Sage Mode, that was.

Ruby, of course, wasn't one to give up so easily. That said, she was still captivated by the blue orb Naruto had formed. She hadn't seen his Rasengan yet, so it was a new experience for her. "Woah…" She exclaimed. "That's cool…"

What she wasn't expecting was for it to collapse in on itself. But judging from Naruto's reaction, it was normal. "What happened to it?" she asked.

"I reabsorbed the Aura," Naruto explained. "I couldn't have held it much longer before it exploded."

"Oh, ok. Let's have that race now!"

"Ruby, you've already beaten me in a race once, why do you want to again?"

"Troy said that you went really fast when you fought that Pain guy. He said you were faster than anyone he'd ever seen."

"Really? That's it?" This time, it was Blake who responded, rather than Naruto. "That's why you want to race Naruto?"

Ruby seemed moderately offended, like Blake had questioned the sacredness of cookies, "Of course it is! I need to know if I'm the fastest!"

Blake laughed. By this point, Ren had lost interest and wandered off. Naruto sighed, "Alright, fine. From here to Vale?" Blake stopped laughing.

"You guys are running that far?"

Naruto nodded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Yeah. It's what we did last time."

"You guys have done this before?" She asked incredulously.

"Of course we have. Twice, actually. One time to get my chokutō."

"Come on, Naruto!" Ruby complained impatiently. "Let's go!"

Naruto rolled his eyes in amusement, "GO!"

And they were off like two red-clad rockets, intent on breaking the sound barrier with their speed. Everyone in the room felt a gust of wind follow them out from the shock of such high speeds.

Naruto and Ruby, however, didn't feel the wind behind them. They did, however, feel the wind smacking them in the face as they went, making it feel almost like their skin was peeling off. Or it would have, had they not both developed a tolerance to it over the years they'd each been doing it.

As it was, Naruto was losing ground to Ruby. Then she went even faster, seeming to think that he was far ahead of her, since she couldn't see him. So he started losing ground to her faster, and decided to use more chakra in his legs, about as much as they could take. In his next step, he felt the ground rise up behind him as he lifted his foot.

And as he hurtled through the forest, catching up to Ruby in no time, and even overtaking her for a moment, before she sped up _even faster_. Seriously, this girl was as fast as Bushier-Brows-sensei. Well… maybe. It was hard to tell, just from memory. Especially since Naruto had never really seen Bushier-Brows-sensei in a fight.

But she was _probably_ faster than him. Regardless, Naruto needed to focus on not running straight into trees. And with him and Ruby neck-and-neck, with Vale within a minute more of running, one slip-up could mean a loss.

But Naruto didn't have a speed semblance without repercussions on his body. He had his chakra, and that definitely took its toll. He couldn't keep up this speed for any longer without getting to feel it in the morning, so he was forced to lower himself to a 'normal' running speed, and Ruby easily left him in the dust.

He hopped up into the trees, and began to speed his way to Vale, where he found her waiting. "Why'd you stop like that?" She asked. He shrugged.

"I can't keep up that speed for long, or I'll feel it later. You're just better at this than me, Ruby," he answered, much to her embarrassed delight. She blushed lightly, and waved off the praise.

"Oh, stop it…" she mumbled. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Nah. You're the best, Ruby! And don't you let anyone tell you otherwise," Naruto continued, much to her rising embarrassment.

"Well, I'm not running back anytime soon. What now?" Naruto questioned.

It was Ruby's turn to shrug, "I dunno. I just wanted a race. I guess we could go to the weapon store?"

"Yeah, alright."

They began to make their way down the street, working towards Bangs and Bombs. Along the way, Naruto heard a faint voice nearby, "All hail the great god Pain!"

Naruto stopped for a moment, stumbling on the stop. It sounded like he had just heard someone praising the guy who had destroyed a lot of villages. But no, that couldn't be right. Even if Ruby had mentioned that people were hailing him as a god, there couldn't be any way people thought he was good, right?

And then, in response, he heard, "HAIL PAIN!" It sounded like it came from a somewhat large crowd, as well. He looked around, but didn't see anyone actively bowing to anything, so he assumed that they weren't nearby. His newfound Faunus hearing meant that they could be halfway across the city, and he would still be able to hear them.

Either way, not important right now. What was important was wasting time until he felt like he could run without negative consequences again. He had seen what happened to Bushy-Brows when he had opened the Gates; he wasn't interested in having something like that happen to him, at least not again. It already kind of had, after he had fought the tiny girl, whose name apparently remained a mystery, even after Yang fought her. And from what he heard, she lost, badly.

Once they finally arrived at Bangs and Bombs, which still remained as Ruby's favorite place to buy weapons, since, according to her, they had more weapons than anywhere else, Naruto remembered that he actually needed kunai and shuriken. He hadn't bought any since he had arrived on Remnant, and he had only had three kunai, four shuriken, and he had used his explosive tag. Well, at least the trip wouldn't be in vain.

Luckily, and as Ruby had said, Bangs and Bombs offered several 'primitive' weapons. Naruto grabbed ten kunai, and ten shuriken, and a few other supplies and surprises. Unfortunately, he had the sneaking suspicion that this place wouldn't have little pieces of paper that exploded into huge booms, just by filling them with a mystical energy that this world didn't even have. Just a hunch.

All the same, he felt a little better, with twenty new throwing weapons at his disposal. He supposed he could just try and use only his chokutō, but he felt like not ever using kunai and shuriken would just feel… foreign.

"Ready to race back yet, Naruto?" Ruby asked, bobbing up and down on her toes. Naruto grinned, then nodded.

"Let's, uh… let's wait 'til we're at the edge of the forest though, ok?" Naruto added. Ruby looked almost disappointed, but relented.

And he thought Diana was weird.

* * *

Monday went by quickly, even after the two arrived back at Beacon from their brief excursion into Vale. It had been around midday when the pair had left, and the sun reigned supreme above. It wasn't much later by the time they got back, and yet the day seemed like it was almost over.

Thus came Tuesday. Given that there were no classes, and students were practically expected to train, the Teams of MDNT, RWBY, and JNPR once again came together in the same training room as the day before, this time for their own little faux-tournament.

A series of one-on-one matches, really. Just for fun, and refining a few points of weakness. After all, what was the best way to train for fighting humans? Fight other humans, and learn how they can beat you.

First up was Naruto, with his opponent as Yang. As Naruto stood facing her, he realized they hadn't ever fought, not even in a friendly spar. And thanks to that realization, he was a little excited to see what she had in store for him. He had five kunai and five shuriken, as well as, obviously, his chokutō, at his disposal, whereas she only wore her gauntlets. That said, Naruto knew to watch them closely. They certainly had firepower, given that she could use them to almost fly.

Ren called down from the stands, "Begin."

And immediately, Yang came rushing at him, using her gauntlets for additional speed. Easy enough to dodge, but Naruto forgot the fact that she was used to speedy fighters. She was Ruby's sister, after all. When he jumped into the air above her, she fired four quick shots. Two were in front of her, stopping her dead in her tracks, while the other two propelled her into the air after him.

He barely had time to pull his chokutō out in time to even try to block her punch. Indeed, he decided, this was not someone who he could beat just by dodging with his speed. She had a strategy for that. Unless… he could turn up the speed. Sage Mode wouldn't be impossible to access, not in this battle. Hm… Nah. Ruby would question him afterwards about his speed, and then she'd want another race. He still wasn't even sure Sage Mode was faster than her, but he was fairly certain.

Back to the fight however, Naruto managed to barely deflect Yang's punch off to the side. She may have had a way to deal with his speed, but she still had that whole 'raw power' thing. Not really refined or focused. He stabbed downwards with his free hand, but she blocked it with her left gauntlet. They fell back down towards the floor. Naruto used her gut as a springboard, putting distance between himself and her, while also sending her into the ground.

According to Ruby, her semblance let her deal back any damage she took. So he would have to be careful about how long the fight went on, or she might accidentally kill him. Oh, and he had to remember: Under no circumstances should you ever, _ever_ touch Yang's hair. It was an oddly specific warning.

Yang stood, grinning like crazy at him. She performed the same move as before, rocketing towards him quickly. He sidestepped, and stabbed inwards as she came closer. Had it not been for a timely dodge on her part, she would had had an arm cut off by his blade.

As it was, her counter to his move was to just let herself tumble to the ground, trying to sweep his feet out with her own as she recovered. He tried slashing once, only for her to hold up her gauntlet to block the attack once again. Still grinning, she reeled a fist back.

' _Oh, crap.'_

Naruto managed to duck under the blast, but he could certainly feel the heat off of it. Alright, so perhaps he wanted to avoid the explosive shotgun gauntlets of painful death. Go figure. He countered with a jab at her midsection, only for her to more or less just take the hit. Her grin bordered on a somewhat cocky smirk as she did, and she slammed her elbow into his back. It didn't really hurt, not compared to, say, having a hand covered in lightning piercing your chest, but it still felt uncomfortable.

He stepped back, holding his chokutō out towards her. She jumped towards him, spinning her leg around in some bizarre attempt at a stylized kick. He blocked his with his arm, and stabbed at her once more, aiming for her left arm. He barely grazed her, his blade passing right over her shoulder.

' _Damn it.'_

She pulled back instantly, landing a safe distance away. Then she noticed a faint tinge of a bright color on the end of Naruto's sword. A bright blonde strand. He didn't seem to notice it, but it could never have gotten past her eyes. And she was not happy, needless to say.

"You… HOW DARE YOU!" She shouted at a thoroughly confused boy, who cocked his head firmly to the side. Not giving an answer, her Semblance flared to life, with her hair burning bright and her eyes blood red. Her gaze met Naruto's, and for some reason she didn't get, his eyes widened immensely.

Right, so Naruto had something to piss of Yang. And judging by the faint strand of blonde hair on his sword, he had the feeling that he knew what it was. But when she began to almost… burn, like a sun, he had looked at her eyes, directly. And saw that they were both bloodshot.

Given what it meant whenever he himself had red eyes, Naruto admittedly panicked a little, wondering what in the hell had happened. But, seeing that her pupils were still circular, he calmed just a little. Besides, it wasn't like she could have Kurama's chakra. It was still eerily similar to his own ability, though. Red eyes? Check. Big heaping of anger? Check.

Nevertheless, his focus now was _not_ being hit by another punch, not now that she was doing whatever _this_ was. He assumed it was her Semblance. How strange that it was so similar to what he could do. She flung herself forwards, arm cocked behind her in rage. Naruto managed to avoid her strike at almost the last second, not giving her time to react and turn to him. From where he was in the air, Naruto fired a few rounds at the blonde.

She almost didn't seem to even notice them, with her hair just glowing a little brighter. She hit the wall feet first, and sprung off of it, turning her residual force around towards him. She flew at him, leaving him in midair with nothing he could really do but raise his arms to block the attack.

He managed to block the worst of it, but was sent flying towards the ground as a result. When he hit the ground, he felt the floor beneath him sink in a little from his momentum. He groaned to himself mentally. Now that he thought about it, he probably could've used a clone to get out of the way. He stood up shakily, facing a still furious Yang, who came at him the moment he stood.

He moved underneath her strike, punching her in the stomach and sending her into the air. She turned around midflight, and began to fire down at him. He flipped along the floor backwards, avoiding the explosions entirely. Yang kept firing until she was kneeling against the ceiling from her attacks. She pressed off the roof just before gravity set in, launching herself towards Naruto with gusto, just after he was finished dodging the last of her shots.

She wasn't leaving much time for him to counterattack amidst her own, and yet he still managed to end up a foot in her gut as she came towards him, sending her back towards the roof. She slammed into the ceiling with a loud crack, and fell back to earth. She was out cold. He may have kicked her harder than he meant to, if he could practically drain her entire Aura with one attack.

"Looks like Naruto wins," Ren called out, rather redundantly. Everyone could clearly see that Naruto won. "Who's up next?"

Nora excitedly raised her hand, right before Troy did the same. Ren glanced over at each of them, and announced that they would be the next match.

* * *

Despite there being nine matches total, the entirety of their little tournament only took about two hours. Because of this, the three teams found themselves all gathered now for lunch, with six of them being rather exhausted. Naruto had fought Ruby in the second round, and she was getting better stamina-wise. She had pushed him into a battle of just trying to hit her. After roughly ten minutes of constantly missing, she finally ran out of gas, and tumbled to the ground, giving him the win.

At the moment, Naruto found himself in the middle of a delightful conversation with the short girl and her sister. "I've got to say, Ruby, I thought I was gonna lose for a moment there," he praised.

She obviously still hadn't gotten much better at receiving said praise, since a light red hue appeared across her face as she mumbled a few intangible words. Yang laughed at her younger sister's shy demeanor, "Ah, come on, Rubes! Naruto just giving you a compliment! There's no need to be so embarrassed about it."

"Well, it's not every day that someone tells me I'm really good at fighting!" Ruby responded. "I'm just not used to it…"

"So, Whiskers?" Yang asked. Naruto turned to her. "Think we'll see you guys in the tourney?"

Naruto grinned, "Maybe if you guys can make it to the finals."

Yang grinned back, "It's on. But just so you know, I'm gonna be the one in the finals. I wanna fight you for real."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yang, I already beat you once today." Yang huffed.

"That was just a friendly spar, nothing more. It didn't mean anything."

Naruto chuckled at the blonde's attitude about it. Prideful was a good word for Yang. "Say what you want," he half-taunted.

Yang crossed her arms, and turned away, as Blake sat down next to her, across from Naruto and Ruby. She had won her first round fight against Ren, but couldn't beat Pyrrha in the second round. "That was a good match, you two," The comment was directed towards Naruto and Ruby. The blond rubbed the back of his head, while Ruby seemed to shrink in on herself more.

"Thanks, Neko-chan!" Blake rolled her eyes at her fellow Faunus, but mostly in mild amusement. She still kind of wanted to know what 'Neko-chan' meant, but it wasn't all that important. She was more curious about other things Naruto said.

"Yours was good, too," Ruby returned. Blake shrugged.

"It was alright. I definitely should have hit more, even with her Semblance giving her an edge."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. She can keep Ruby from hitting her, even with how fast Ruby is. Hell, she can keep track of her when she moves." Ruby nodded in agreement. She'd only fought Pyrrha once before, but it had been annoying when her precious Crescent Rose kept moving on seemingly its own.

"I guess. But you better win, Naruto," Blake more-or-less demanded. Naruto, Pyrrha, and Weiss were to do a three-way free-for-all after the lunch they were all enjoying. "Don't… uh… don't tell Weiss I said that. She'll think I'm betraying her."

Naruto laughed, "Don't worry, I won't."

"Me neither," Ruby added. "I'm rooting for Naruto, too." Blake snickered.

Naruto copied Blake, "Aw, thanks, Ruby." The cloaked girl beamed.

"So, how's your move coming, Naruto?" Blake asked.

"Pretty good. I think I need some combat experience to really get it down. Nothing teaches better than necessity."

Blake frowned at him, "Really? I would think that you'd want to know that it works going in."

"If you can, sure. But I'm not getting any further on my own." To prove his point, Naruto lifted his hand up, and began to form the Rasengan with just his one hand. It got to the size of a baseball before he began to use his other hand to rotate it. The biggest it got was the same grapefruit size that it had been the day prior. Ren sat down next to Blake, Yang having long since left.

"I still don't understand how you do that," he began. "I tried, but I can only get Aura to line my palm, and provide a defense. I can't emit it like that."

"Well, ya know. Years of practice," Naruto dismissed. It wasn't entirely true, but nor was it entirely false. He had several years of forming the Rasengan on his side when it came do doing it with a clone, sure. But not one-handed, like he was trying now.

"Hm," Ren grunted.

* * *

In a triangle formation on the training room floor, Naruto, Pyrrha, and Weiss all halfheartedly glared at each other, waiting for the match to begin. When it finally did, there was an initial moment of pandemonium.

Naruto charged towards Weiss, seeking to get it down to a one-on-one with Pyrrha. At the same time, Pyrrha charged towards him, while Weiss did the same, rapier outstretched. He dodged under it, and stabbed upwards with a kunai. He pulled his chokutō out as a pistol, aiming it at Pyrrha, and firing several bullets to distract her.

Weiss held the revolver section of her rapier in the way of Naruto's attack, blocking the kunai. He moved to the left, standing upright once more, and swiftly firing at the Ice Queen. She formed a glyph in front of her, which stopped the bullets dead in their tracks. Pyrrha came from behind her, but she leapt over the redhead's swipe, firing dust at her. Pyrrha rolled forwards, as Naruto met her with his kunai and chokutō, leaving her to block both. His sword met hers, and her shield blocked his little knife.

Weiss glided at them, rapier poised to stab one of them. Pyrrha flipped over him, and he was left to try and block two strikes from either side. At a time like this, he wished he had the eyesight of the Sharingan. He spun his chokutō in his left hand, blocking away Weiss's stab, while also trying to block each of Pyrrha's strikes.

Weiss slashed at him, but he ducked under it. As he did, Pyrrha shot at him, and he threw his kunai at the bullet, deflecting it. Pyrrha stabbed downwards, and he rolled out of the way, while Weiss stabbed at the other girl. Pyrrha blocked the rapier with her shield. Naruto flipped backwards through the air, shooting at each of them at the pinnacle of his jump. Pyrrha blocked each bullet with her shield, whereas Weiss simply dodged out of the way.

He hit the ground again, sprinting for Pyrrha the moment he did. She held up her shield in preparation, but instead of attacking her, he used it as a spring board to jump over her, headed for Weiss. She held up her rapier to block the worst of his swing, but she was still sent a few feet back from the force behind the attack.

Seeing Pyrrha come up from behind him, Naruto began to form the Rasengan in his hand. Weiss came from in front, but just as she and Pyrrha were both ready to attack him, he ducked down, letting them hit each other, before he slammed the blue orb into the ground, kicking up a shockwave.

Pyrrha and Weiss both held their arms in front of their faces, shielding them from the dust sent out by the technique's impact. In the moment of distraction, Naruto began his assault on Weiss. His first three strikes went unblocked, severely damaging her Aura shield. She finally thought to try and block with her blade by the time the dust settled, but by then it was too late. With his speed, he had moved behind her, and kicked her into Pyrrha.

Pyrrha's eyes widened as Weiss flew towards her, but she had no time to dodge. She held up her shield to hold back the impact, and braced it with her right arm, but she still felt Weiss slam against it, knocking her over from the weight. Weiss was out cold. The redhead recovered quickly, to find Naruto bearing down on her, chokutō ready to strike. Her shield was sufficient to block it, leaving her sword open to counter. He grinned, and reached behind himself. Knowing where this usually went, she swung at him immediately.

He whipped his hand back around, blocking her sword with three shuriken, held in between his fingers. There was a thin coating of blood forming on the edge of her blade, so she guessed that the shuriken hadn't protruded enough to block it entirely. Nevertheless, he thrust his hand into her sword, pushing it away. Before she could bring it back under her control, he threw all the shuriken at her, from a close distance.

She panicked, and exerted her Semblance outwards, halting the shuriken in midair. She swore Naruto groaned, but her focus was more on his moves than his displeasure. She let the shuriken drop to the ground, and swung once again at Naruto. Though he had still held his blade against her shield, he pulled it away, dodging under her attack at the same time.

He stabbed at her, almost hitting but for her stepping back quickly. He rolled his eyes. This was going nowhere. In as swift a motion as he could, he dropped both his sword and his weapon pouch to the ground. Pyrrha held her shield towards him, knowing his plan. He knelt down, hands on the ground in front of him, one leg stretched out behind. He held that pose for several seconds, completely still.

Just as Pyrrha was ready to make her move, some weird marks appeared around his eyes, and Naruto disappeared. She held up her shield again, trying to hear where he went. But she wasn't ready for his being above her. She felt his foot impact the side of her head, right before she was sent straight into a wall, on the opposite side of the room.

' _May have overdone it a little. Whoops. At least I remembered not to go_ too _fast. Don't need Ruby questioning that.'_

Naruto dropped Sage Mode before he hit the ground, watching Pyrrha closely. She tried to stand for a moment, but her brain was still rattling around in her head. She fell back to the ground, but still managed to give a thumbs-up, showing she was alright.

Naruto stood back up to his full height, breathing out a deep breath. The other nine people, the ones who hadn't been fighting, were clapping. Diana even let out a cheer of excitement. Naruto almost felt like he should be bowing.

* * *

As the blond rode the elevator up, he was more than a little nervous. Ozpin had already called him in once, but now he wanted to talk again. And this time, Naruto had no idea what he might have wanted. There wasn't much else he hadn't asked about.

Finally, the elevator reached the top, and Ozpin gave a friendly wave as the door opened, "Come in, Mr. Uzumaki. Have a seat."

Naruto complied, tentatively sitting down across from the headmaster. "Now, I'm sorry to trouble you, but I need information. I need to know about the Vulpecula, and it's clear you know something."

Naruto paled a little. Apparently, he hadn't hidden it as well as he had hoped. Ozpin sighed, "I am sorry, Naruto. But if this Grimm is a threat, then I will need to know what it is and what it can do."

Naruto gave several moments of thought to how he would get through this before he spoke, "Uh… My village had a history with it. It attacked the village some time ago, and it ended up killing a lot of people. It's… well, it's the actual reason people hated me. They thought I was just like it, because of the whiskers."

Ozpin showed a look of concern to the boy, but behind it was a calculating brain. So, it was certainly hostile to humans, and had caused the boy before him no end of grief. "What exactly can it do?"

"It had some kind of explosive technique it could use. Other than that, I don't know."

'S _orry about calling you 'it,' Kurama.'_

"Are you certain? Do you know anything else about it?"

"No, not really. I know people used to talk about how the first person to lead the village could control it."

Interesting… a Grimm that could supposedly be controlled. Finding out how that was done might be useful. If they had something that powerful on their side, something that could kill other Grimm with nary a hesitation, according to Imperius, it be fantastic weapon against the forces of Salem. Though, more importantly, did this mean that other Grimm could be controlled, as well?

But right now, Naruto was asking about something, "Sir? I was wondering… those four who can use Natural Energy, do they have marks around their eyes?"

"That's a peculiar question. Why do you ask?"

"I'm just wondering."

"Ah, I see. No, they do not have any such eye markings. However, when using their powers, their eyes may glow," Ozpin answered. What a strange question for the boy to ask. Perhaps it related to what he called 'Sage Mode.' Speaking of which… "I'm curious as to the nature of this 'Sage Mode' you mentioned to me. What does it allow you to do?"

"I heal faster, I move faster, I'm stronger, and the Natural Energy around me helps me fight." Naruto left out that he could sense people's Auras. That would likely raise more questions from the man, more than Naruto wanted to answer. Although... "Professor, you mentioned there are four people on Remnant who can use Natural Energy, right?"

"I believe that there are four people whose abilities are derived from a similar source, yes."

"Well, I can sense Natural Energy in Sage Mode. And I felt two other people using nature energy in Beacon."

"I see... that would be all I had for you. Farewell, Mr. Uzumaki."

As Naruto walked away, Ozpin reflected on what he found rather humorous. Each time he spoke with the blond, he would always end up with more questions than he had had before. Truly, it was rather strange. For example, why had the boy asked about the Maidens? And where did he get the term 'Natural Energy?' Not to mention the 'two people' he had felt with it on Beacon's grounds. One would be Amber, of course, but who was the other? It could only be one person, really. There was also the hesitation that Naruto had kept up throughout the conversation, like there was still something he was leaving out about the Grimm that killed the man who destroyed his village.

* * *

Thursday was upon them before they knew it. Wednesday had been spent, for Team MDNT anyway, training with each other, working on their still-abysmal teamwork. Though, they were making progress, for sure.

Thursday they were spending in the Emerald Forest, to kill Grimm together. Melissa's rather dangerous goal was to have them fight four large Grimm at once, and still win. Naruto was looking forward to it. He needed to practice his Rasengan in a fight, anyways. And there weren't many ways he could do that outside of fighting Grimm, since the other way he could would probably end up injuring his hand a lot, given what happened when a small Rasengan hit Aura. He could only imagine that a larger one would be worse.

Standing atop Beacon Cliff, Melissa, Diana, Naruto, and Troy all stared down into the forest, bracing for the task ahead. Naruto was the first one to jump off into the foliage below. He landed next to Troy and Diana, with Melissa following suit soon enough.

"Remember guys, when you find a Grimm, try not to kill it immediately, at least not if it's a big one," Melissa requested. They all agreed, then split up, with radios each of them could use to communicate.

Naruto immediately leapt into a tree, going roughly a hundred yards, before he sat down and began to meditate. After several moments, two familiar orange marks appeared around his eyes. He began to reach out to find Grimm, but only felt Beowolves and Ursai for a little over three miles. Then, on the edge of his sensory range, about four miles from where he was sitting, he could sense just one Deathstalker. Not exactly the four that Melissa was going for, but it would work.

He grinned, and stood up, ready to go. Bending his knees, slightly, Naruto pressed off the thick branch he was standing on, breaking it in the process. He flew through the forest at break-neck speeds, hitting the two mile mark in only ten seconds. After a few more, he had reached a large clearing, the middle of which hosted the giant arachnid-like Grimm. Entering Sage Mode one more time, he was shocked to feel seven rather large Grimm nearby. Three were Deathstalkers, including the one in front of him, two were King Taijitus, and the two others were Giant Nevermores.

Quite a plethora to choose from, really. Naruto turned on his radio, "Guys, I found seven big Grimm. They're a little scattered around me."

Melissa's voice came back over, "Where are you, Naruto?"

Shortly, Troy and Diana appeared next to Naruto, with Melissa joining them after a few minutes. Naruto pointed at the scorpion Grimm before them, "This is number one. There are two others like it, and a few other Grimm, as well."

Melissa grinned. Time for fun. "Well, let's get their attention." She pulled her rifle off her back, aiming at the Grimm in front of and below them, and firing several rounds at it. Though they seemed to do little damage, the Deathstalker screeched with rage, whipping around to face them. Naruto hopped down to face it, Troy and Diana right behind him.

They all stopped for a moment when multiple other shrieks identical to the Deathstalker's rang out all around them. It seemed that its friends indeed had been alerted to their presence. Naruto grinned to himself. He made his baseball-sized Rasengan in his hand. Truth be told, he was proud of being able to make it this big with only one hand, even if it was still smaller than Ero-Sennin's own. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and saw Troy smirking at him. Naruto nodded, a similar smirk spreading across his face.

The next moment, Naruto and Troy were above the Deathstalker's abdomen, and the blond thrust the majestic blue orb into it, digging into the bony armor, through to the flesh beneath, acting almost like a blender as it ground it up. He let go of the technique, and the scorpion was driven into the ground from the aftereffects.

Those three other Deathstalkers burst into the clearing, each one coming from roughly the same direction. Naruto rolled his eyes, despite knowing this would happen. He pulled out his chokutō, but was taken by surprise when the Deathstalker he and Troy were standing on began to shift around. It wasn't dissolving, meaning it was still alive, even after that.

Naruto and Troy both had the same idea, and they both began to fire multiple rounds into the sizable hole Naruto had left in its armor. Both of them weren't expecting a much larger blast to appear in the wound, but Melissa certainly delivered her help on the fight, still in the tree. Her voice came over the radio, "Get going; there's still those three."

Naruto and Troy each gave a thumbs up to her, before Naruto sped towards them while Troy teleported to the three. Diana was right behind them, giant sword at the ready. Naruto distracted it by leaping over the main part of its body, cutting at various points, leaving Diana and Troy to do damage to it. The rainbow girl swung her sword like it was a toothpick, actually managing to cut off one of the Grimm's pincers. Melissa immediately took her chance, and filled the newly opened wound with ice dust rounds, freezing its insides. One of the ice blooms pierced through its head, skewering its brain, killing it instantly. Two left.

From behind, Diana was almost taken by a stinger, but for Troy teleporting her out of the way and Melissa firing several rounds at the tail. Naruto stabbed one of its eyes, blinding it on its left side. It screeched in pain, but Naruto wasn't done by any means. Or at least, he wouldn't have been. It seemed that these Grimm were figuring out they should work together. That, and the birds had shown up. One of them almost ate Naruto, but he was able to mount it by grabbing onto some feathers after dodging.

From the air, Naruto had a rather great view of the forest around them. He also had a great opening to the weak points on the bird. Using his chakra to keep himself steady, Naruto began to slash at the bird's back over and over, not really doing damage to it. Sighing to himself, he switched over to his pistol, loaded with one of his 'surprises' from the other day: lightning dust. Placing it against the feathered back, he fired once, twice, three times. The Nevermore squawked in pain, beginning to try and throw him off.

He had chakra connecting him to it, so that wasn't a concern he needed to worry about. He decided to end the bird quickly, so he could help his team. Making a quick Rasengan, he thrust it into the bird's back, as with the scorpion before it. With the loudest shriek yet, it fell to the ground, a little ways away from the clearing where the rest of them were. Naruto leapt off of it as it fell, trying to get as close as he could to the clearing by the time he hit the ground.

He managed to get close enough, and began to sprint back, making it to the battle in under a minute. By this point, another Deathstalker was dead, and a King Taijitu had shown up. Diana was still fighting, but Naruto couldn't see where Troy was. Melissa seemed to still be firing at the Grimm, given the ice that would sprout against them. He heard his leader's voice come over the radio, "Naruto! We could use some help here!"

"Coming! Where's Troy?" Naruto asked.

"He's on the other bird. It looks like you gave him an idea."

Naruto looked up, and indeed, there was another Nevermore high above them. He returned his focus to the snake slithering up behind Diana, who was preoccupied with the Deathstalker. She deflected its stinger with the flat of her blade, but the Taijitu was just behind her. Naruto moved in between the two of them, and stabbed upwards through the snake's mouth, managing somehow to not impale his arm on any of the fangs.

Then, of course, he got a rather dumb idea. He climbed into the snake's mouth, and it closed behind him. Melissa was about to scream into her radio, but before she could, Naruto's blade, which had pierced the top of its head, began to move in a circle. Naruto was cutting a hole in its head. The skin fell inwards, and, as it was dissolving, Naruto climbed out, grinning like a madman. Meanwhile, Diana had finished off the other Deathstalker, it having already been half-blinded by Naruto.

Troy appeared next to them, as the husk of the vanishing Nevermore slammed into the ground in the middle of the clearing. Finally, the last of them broke the tree line: the King Taijitu. Naruto glanced at Diana and Troy, grinning ear to ear, and charged the big snake with them, Melissa still playing support.

Barely five minutes later, Team MDNT stood amidst a field where, by all rights, there should have been seven large corpses. It still strange to the blond member of the team that they just faded away. Melissa was the first to speak, "Well, that was fun."

* * *

At last did Friday dawn upon the school of Beacon, bringing with it the kind of tension one may find the night before a major holiday. Which, all things considered, made sense, since the Vytal Festival was a major holiday.

Given that they would be spending the next week or so beating the living hell out of each other, Teams RWBY, JNPR, and MDNT all felt that they could use this last free day to hang around. Perhaps training would have been a better use of their time, but no one was telling them that.

Their day began with simply all gathering in the common room of the dorms around noon. No one else was there, presumably because most teams had gone into Vale for the day, to partake in the festivities. But not these three teams. These three teams weren't ones to follow the group. These three were going to spend the whole day at Beacon, especially when it was this devoid of people.

At the moment, they were all just chatting amiably with one another, discussing various topics, such as the upcoming tournament, or plans after the tournament. Naruto found himself speaking with Ruby, Diana, and Nora at one point.

"I don't care how many times you say it; it's not true," Naruto objected. Ruby huffed.

"Oh, and you know everything about it?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Diana gave her two cents, "You're both wrong!" They turned to her, glaring. Nora chimed in as well.

"I don't get how you three can be so ignorant: Pancakes are obviously the best food there is!" she proclaimed. Naruto shook his head vigorously.

"Ramen is better; I'm sorry."

Ruby covered her ears dramatically, "Cookies can beat all of them easily!"

Diana, despite being in the most important argument of her life, was still beaming away, "I heard Kami likes pretzel buns!" Naruto cocked his head at her.

"Since when do you say Kami?"

"You said he exists!" replied the rainbow girl. Naruto chuckled to himself, shaking his head.

"Who's Kami?" Ruby asked.

"I think you guys call him God?" Naruto half-answered, half-asked.

"You guys are missing the point!" Nora almost yelled. "Pancakes can't be beaten!"

"Ramen is the food of the gods," Naruto countered. Okay, so maybe he was a little biased. But hey, when you're a starving orphan who can get free food from a ramen stand, you tend to pick a favorite food pretty quickly.

* * *

Four hours went by quickly in the common room, and soon the teams were thinking up new activities. The first one they picked? Capture. The. Flag. A little lackluster, but for the fact that they were all highly trained super-warriors.

One team was given all of Beacon's grounds, while the other team was given the Emerald Forest. Six vs six, with the captains being decided in rock-paper-scissors. Ruby and Jaune beat Melissa, leaving them as the capture-the-flag captains. Ruby beat Jaune afterwards, and thus she picked first.

"Yang!" came the unsurprising answer.

Jaune picked next, "Pyrrha!"

"Uh… Weiss!"

"Nora!"

Ruby looked between all of them that were left. She pointed at Naruto, "Naruto!"

Jaune had a deviant smile on his face, "Blake."

Yang gave him as dirty a look as she could. At the same time, she had to admire him for it. Ruby didn't skip a beat, "Troy!" A little surprising it took so long to reach him, considering that he could _teleport_. You know, right past them.

"Ren."

"Melissa!"

"Diana."

Ruby clapped her hands together, obviously excited, "Let's go over the rules one more time! Remember, you have to have the flag in plain sight. No hiding it in trees!" She gave a cute pout to Jaune. "Dividing line is Beacon Cliff. First person to get up or over the cliff with the flag wins."

Jaune's team nodded, then ran off towards the forest with the bright red flag, roughly ten feet tall. Ruby's team had a similar flag, but it was blue. And they had to find out where and how to guard it. Naruto looked around, not seeing anywhere great for it.

Ruby handed it to Melissa, and pointed to the top of the student dorms. Naruto had to appreciate her quick thinking. It was a good, hard-to-reach place. When Melissa returned, Ruby launched into her strategy, "Alright guys, here's how we're gonna do this. Naruto and I will guard the flag. Nobody's going to get past us!" She and Naruto high-fived. "Weiss and Melissa, you look around their area from the air. Yang and Troy, wait on top of the cliff for those two to tell you where their flag is, then go get it!"

Naruto couldn't help but smile at how into this she was getting. He wasn't the only one either. Yang was beaming at her little sister. "Right!" several of them said in unison, before scattering. A few moments later, Naruto was next to the flag, with Ruby right there next to him.

"Good plan, Ruby."

She waved him off, a light red hue adorning her cheeks, "Oh, it was nothing special… Just something that seemed obvious."

"Yeah, but we probably won't even see the other team all game, with this plan you've got."

Ruby began jumping up and down excitedly, "OOH! We should hide, and then wait for them to come get our flag! Then, once they do, we tag them!"

"Yeah, ok."

Unfortunately for Ruby's plan, they never saw anyone, as Naruto had joked. Instead, their attention was drawn several hours later by the bright red flag headed their way. They stood up, and saw it was Troy holding it, with a small disgruntled band of people behind him. He had a bit of a cocky smirk on his face, carrying that flag.

* * *

As a celebratory party for winning, the three teams regathered in the commons room, but with all sorts of food and drink this time. By now, it was after six, and the first teams were coming back from Vale. For some reason none of the members of the three teams could fathom, all the returning students avoided entering the commons room.

Perhaps it was because of the music Yang had selected, or perhaps it was because of the absolutely taboo light beer being passed around. For Naruto, it wasn't exactly a new experience, but he knew that it probably was for some of the others, Yang not included. Why he thought this? Well, she was the one supplying it, so there was that. And the fact that her uncle was, according to her, always drunk.

Eventually, he elected to remove himself from the small party, beginning to feel the effects of the alcohol. Since he couldn't rely on Kurama to heal him at light speed, he could have theoretically gotten drunk, for the first time. But instead, he decided to keep a level head for the next day.

And so, he went up to the roof, sitting on the edge of it for what must have been the thousandth time. There was something oddly tranquil about the rooftop. But, and seeing as how he had just walked out of the party, it shouldn't have been a surprise, someone had followed him up to the roof. Blake wasn't exactly unwelcome, though. He smiled warmly as she sat down.

"Why're you up here, all alone?" she began.

"Eh, I've never been a big fan of drinking. My godfather, uh, well… he's the one who got me like that. I'd say you would have liked him, but you probably would have spent half your time breaking his fingers. He was a pretty big pervert."

Blake chuckled, but only for a moment, "So, what about your actual dad?"

"What do you mean?"

Blake took a pretty deep breath, likes she was preparing for a long speech, "Well, you told us that your dad created the Rasengan. But you had told me before that it was made by the fourth leader of your village."

Naruto followed along, wondering where the issue was. Amazing he couldn't spot it yet. Blake continued, "So, I'm glad your dad was great and all, but… well, you had also told me you never met your parents, and that no one had ever told you anything about them."

And like that, realization hit Naruto in the face. He had just witnessed the first rip form in his web of lies and half-truths. And one hole would lead to several more, if it wasn't fixed quickly. So he began to think.

But then, suddenly, he stopped. This could be a great opportunity for him. A chance for him to get one of his biggest secrets of his chest, even if it was only to one person. He sighed, "Blake, please keep this a secret, ok? I don't want the others to know about this. I'm worried how they might react."

"Ok."

"Promise me, Blake."

Blake frowned at his sudden change in attitude. It was like when he had told her the story of his fight with his friend. It was Naruto's turn for a deep breath, "My dad was... unique. He had a lot of talent, and so people always called him a prodigy. And he had one talent that was really strong, and helped a lot with his Semblance. It… um… it's hard to describe. People always called it Fūinjutsu. Basically, he wrote seals. Think of Weiss's glyphs, but on a paper, or really any surface. And much more powerful, too."

"Alright… Where are you going with this?"

"We had a problem with a demon. Or, at least, we called it a demon. But it wasn't just some Grimm. What we had to deal with was absolutely monstrous. It was a colossal foxlike being. And it was dangerous, and powerful. It had destroyed a huge part of our village by the time my dad beat it.

But something like that can't just be killed. He needed a better way to deal with it. So, he wrote a seal on his newborn son. And it was meant to imprison the fox."

"Oh…"

Blake seemed shocked, having picked up on what Naruto was saying, in a way. Naruto really hoped this was convincing. Now that he thought about it, he could have passed this off by saying Pain told him. Huh. Oh, well.

"But that's not it. People always assumed that the fox, who we all called the Kyūbi, was too strong, and would break out with no problem."

"Wait, but didn't you just say that your dad was a prodigy at this? Did people not have any faith in his power?" Blake asked incredulously.

Naruto smiled brightly internally. Perhaps Blake _was_ the right person to tell this to. She would probably understand, at least a little. Funnily enough, Ero-Sennin had actually said something almost _exactly_ the same one time. He finished, "No, they didn't. They always thought the Kyūbi would break free, and kill them all. So they always ostracized me, telling me I was nothing. As for how I found out who my dad was… Well, I almost did lose control, on the mission last month. But my dad was really smart, and he said he worked it into the seal that he would show up if I ever lost control. I got to talk to him for a while." He grinned at the memory. "Do you get why I don't want anyone else to know this?"

Blake frowned with a mixture of concern and happiness. She could see why this should be private, but at the same time… "But… you're a good person. I know you'd never do anything to hurt anyone!" Blake seemed to be getting frantic over the subject. "And I'm sure everyone else would agree. You're not this 'Kyūbi' thing, you're Naruto! You're-"

She was cut off by Naruto gently grabbing her chin, and pulling her in. He kissed her lightly on her forehead. When he looked into her shocked eyes again, she could see them glistening, and he was smiling.

"Thank you, Blake."

* * *

 **Eh… I don't know. I think that at some point, I'm going to need to go back and rewrite the dialogue for that last scene. But right now, I'm far too lazy for something like that.**

 **And thus, Naruto reveals one of arguably the biggest things about himself to Blake, albeit in a haphazard, roundabout way. I'm okay with it though. Still have no idea how I'm meant to have him reveal his being a ninja. Not exactly a common conversation:**

" **Hey, man, did I ever tell you that I'm a ninja from another dimension?"**

" **Wait, what?"**

 **Until Chapter 15!**


	15. Chapter 15: The Tournament

**So, I noticed a few people questioning the strain of chakra on Naruto's limbs. My explanation is, admittedly, a lackluster one. See, when Naruto is training to form the Rasengan, there's a brief scene where his arm is shaking so badly that he can't even hold chopsticks, all from how much he had pumped chakra through his arm. I'm just extrapolating that a little.**

 **Fuck it, this is moving back to Saturday.**

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own any of this.**

* * *

Chapter 15: The Tournament

Saturday was, fortunately, an absolutely wonderful day. There was nary a cloud in sight, and the sky shone a brilliant blue. And bright and early, most of Beacon's teams were up and about, excited for the day. Surprisingly, out of the thirty-two teams taking part in the tournament, there were only five from Beacon taking part.

The first match would take place at 1 PM. Until then, Team MDNT had several hours to prepare themselves for their match. They'd managed to somehow work their way to the first fight of the tourney, against Team GNGR (Ginger). Though three hours seemed like quite a time, it was over before they knew it, and they found themselves before their competition.

Their leader, Gamboge, standing taller than Naruto did, was wearing a brown robe that that reminded Naruto of what Neji usually wore. At his side, there was a morning star that glowed faintly blue. After him, Nicole, a girl somewhat on the short side, especially compared to her leader. She wore a mostly gray outfit, consisting of simple form-fitting pants and a tank top. She also wore sunglasses. On her sides, there were two Hachiwaris.

Past her, and eyeing each of them somewhat amusedly, was Grant. His appearance was that of a boy wearing a black cloak, like the ones the Akatsuki wore, but without the clouds. He had a crossbow on his back, and its bolt had a red hue to it. As for the last member of their team, Rufus, he was wearing a crimson pair of pants, and a long coat, but no shirt. He had no weapon that they could see.

Gamboge called over to them, "Allow us to have a fair and honorable match." Melissa bowed respectfully. Several screens popped up in the air around the arena, choosing something through randomization. One the side of Team GNGR, the screens ended on the image of a destroyed city. To Naruto's amazement, the floor behind them opened up, and a mimicry of a destroyed city rose up from the floor.

He looked up in the air behind himself, to see a blue outline of something. The floor behind them pulled back, and an icy landscape rose from beneath. He turned back to his team, to see Melissa studying the city section. Port's voice rang out, calling for the match to start.

Naruto pulled out his chokutō instantly, as Troy grabbed his arm. He felt the very brief rushing feeling, before reappearing behind them. In their moment of shock, he bisected Nicole. Or rather, he would have, had a column of fire not appeared in his way. He saw Rufus grinning at him, smoke curling off his hands.

He stepped back, holding up his sword to block Nicole's dual-wielding assault. Her weapons, as with most of their kind, had small hooks near the hilt, which she wrapped around his blade on either side. Using them, she wrenched his weapon out of his hands, sending it skidding across the ground. Nicole was about to follow up on the opening she'd given herself, but a look of shock spread across her face in an instant when an icy bullet flew into her side. Her Aura kept too much injury from occurring, but Melissa's help gave Naruto the time he needed to re-arm himself.

Troy, meanwhile, was having quite a time in the destroyed city. He was trying to fight two people at once, but whenever he would get close to either one, a fire spout would block him off. Rufus definitely knew how to use his Semblance defensively. Although, this kind of combat had to be taxing on him.

At the same time, however, Grant was giving him hell with his crossbow, which was currently in the form of a spear, with the bolt being the tip. Troy brought one knife up in a reverse-grip, while the other one was in its pistol form, firing away at the fiery fighter.

His bullets were for naught, however. A double helix of flame burned each of them to a crisp, and continued towards the teleporter. Troy rolled his eyes, and teleported behind Grant. He finally managed to get one solid blow off, kicking the boy in gray into the fire his teammate had produced before. Troy had no time to revel in his small victory, as Rufus gave some sort of war cry before reeling his head back. Troy only had a moment's hesitation before he thought to try and avoid whatever was coming next.

And how glad he was that he did. He had teleported to the top of a nearby building, and was privy to the majestic sight of white-hot flame burning up everything in front of the Haven student. Troy frowned, since as he looked around, he couldn't see Grant anywhere. Then he heard the telltale holler above him.

Though their height differences made it look hilarious, Diana had engaged Gamboge in one-on-one combat, and she was having the time of her life. She swung her sword like a baseball bat over and over, occasionally striking the rather durable leader of Team GNGR. Most of her attacks were blocked by the guy's morning star, however. And each time an attack was blocked, a jolt of electricity flashed across her blade. But since her hilt had a leather grip, she was able to ignore it.

She slammed her blade down, only for him to slide backwards out of its way. She leapt forwards at him, holding her sword over her head. Seeming to sigh to himself, Gamboge stepped out of her path, but swung his weapon into her stomach. She let go of her sword in the impact, and Gamboge followed through with his attack, sending her and her weapon in opposite directions. And yet, when she stood, she still had her maniacal grin on her face.

She tried to rush past him, but he wasn't stupid, and she wasn't as fast as Naruto. He swung again, though this time Diana at least at the wherewithal to dodge the attack. Seeing her chance as he recovered from his attack, she rushed forwards again, this time just managing to roll past him dramatically and pick up her sword, winding up on her feet, holding her sword towards her opponent.

Melissa was positioned up in a tall building in the city, firing at the girl Naruto was fighting. She felt like she should help Naruto win first, since without a doubt he was the best in their team. She really had no idea how he did it. Either way, she kept up her barrage on the small girl, keeping her from launching any counterattacks, since she had to focus on two defenses at once.

Naruto rushed her, appearing right in front of her, looking up at her face as he performed an uppercut. Nicole was sent several meters into the air, eyes rattling in their sockets. Melissa winced a little at it. She'd never personally been on the receiving end of one of Naruto's attacks, but she was more than happy to keep it that way.

Nicole shook her head in midair, and turned over to face the ground. She held up her blades when Naruto came up at her, aiming for a stab. She intercepted the sword, but Naruto just let go of it, and whipped his legs around, sending his heel into her back. She flew straight down, right into the ground, where she lay still.

Oobleck's voice came over the speakers, "Ooh! It seems a devastating kick from Naruto Uzumaki has knocked young miss Nicole out cold! She'll be feeling that one tomorrow. Or possibly later today…"

Naruto grabbed his chokutō as he fell, observing the battle around him. Melissa did the same from her vigil in the tower. Gamboge seemed to be fed up with Diana's antics, whatever those happened to be, as he had wrapped his hand around her ankle, and was currently tossing her about like a ragdoll. He saw Naruto coming to help, and threw the rainbow girl into the blond. Not expecting it, Naruto was caught off guard as he caught Diana.

He stumbled back, almost falling over from the sudden weight. He had also dropped his sword for the third time that match. Gamboge took advantage of the moment of weakness, and swung his morning star right into the side of Naruto's head. The poor blond went flying across half the arena before slamming to a halt in the side of an icy hill. Unfortunately, he also indented far enough into it that he couldn't move at all, his arms and legs being stuck in the rigid ice. That was some scary strength their leader had.

Regardless, not being able to move was by no means a weakness for Naruto. He grinned to himself despite the head trauma and numbness in his limbs, and began to gather Natural Energy. He felt the familiar power flow into him, and soon enough he had entered Sage Mode. He did make sure to keep his head down at least a little, to make sure he wasn't showing off sudden tattoos around his eyes to the whole crowd. He ripped his arms forward, freeing them of their icy prison, and fell to the ground on his hands and knees.

From his position, he grinned at the ground. Gamboge was heading towards him, fast. But by no means was he faster than Naruto. And so, by the time Gamboge had set down another foot, he found one of Naruto's imbedded in his abdomen. He barely had a moment to register what had happened before he found himself outside the boundaries of the arena. Port commentated once more, "And another member of Team GNGR is knocked out of the fight by Team MDNT's blond menace!"

Naruto had dropped Sage Mode in the instant that he kicked the guy out of the arena, leaving his eyes normal by the time the crowd could see him again. Seriously, he really probably shouldn't have done that. It was an unnecessary risk, honestly. Nevertheless, there were still two more members of Team GNGR-

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Troy of Team MDNT and Grant of Team GNGR have just performed mutual strike! A double knockout!" Port's voice rang out.

Right, so there was one member of Team GNGR left. The fire-spewing one, naturally. Just as Naruto began to search for him, he heard a drastic drop on the Aura board above the arena. He looked up, and saw that Melissa's had dropped down to forty, from a hundred. He looked over to where Melissa was, and saw that the building had collapsed, with fire around its base.

Since Naruto didn't want to fight one-on-one with someone this troublesome, he elected to help Melissa out of the way of the tornado of fire Rufus had sent her way. The blond Faunus rushed over, forming a Rasengan. He positioned himself in front of Melissa, who was recovering too slowly, and thrust the orb into the twister of fire. It caused the fire to harmlessly dissipate, leaving Naruto and Melissa largely unharmed.

Melissa switched over to her staff, "Let's get him, partner." Naruto grinned, and nodded. Together, they charged him down. Naruto used his speed to move behind him, and they each attacked from opposing sides. Rufus had just enough time to look back and forth before he used his counter.

Which just so happened to be lighting himself on fire. In a blaze that would put a bonfire to shame, Rufus disappeared from view. Naruto could just barely hear the sounds of the Aura display trickling down over the sound of fire crackling. He could also just hear Oobleck saying that Melissa was defeated, but at the cost of a large portion of Rufus's remaining Aura.

Ah, so that was the weakness. He had to use up a lot of Aura to fight like this. From the smoke left behind by the inferno before, the fire-wielder rushed out, bringing his arms up like he was planning on using them to fight. And he did. Naruto waited for him to make the first move, which ended up being an attempted heel strike.

As he dodged it, fire spewed off Rufus's feet, extending the range of the attack. Naruto just had time to duck under the wave of fire before it passed over him. The next attack came quickly, as a palm strike with fire coming out of it. Naruto sidestepped this one, and brought his knee up and arm down on Rufus's left arm. He broke it, badly.

Rufus groaned in intense pain, clutching his arm, but continuing to attack with his legs. He was actually rather acrobatic, as it turned out. Naruto, after a number of volleys from the boys legs, finally had his chance to strike, and took it, sinking his fist into… well, it's better to leave the details out. But since Rufus was only using his feet, it was bound to be exposed at some point.

Obviously, the boy fell to the ground, in even more pain than he had been in before. He squeaked rather loudly. Port's hesitant voice came over the system, "And… uh… it seems the… winner is Team MDNT. Can… can somebody get that boy an ice pack? Or two?"

* * *

The match may have been a bit of a festival of silliness, but it was still a victory for Team MDNT nonetheless. So of course, they were subject to much congratulation afterwards. It obviously didn't last long, since the next match took place after just a half an hour. Though all the matches were interesting enough, none of them really had that silly charm that the first match had. Eventually, Team RWBY was up against a team from Haven.

Admittedly, Naruto had tuned out, and didn't realize they were fighting until about halfway through the match. By then, they were all scattered across the arena, which was divided into a lava field and the same icy section as Team MDNT had fought in. Ruby seemed to be acting as support for the team, providing sniper fire the same as Melissa had. Weiss looked to be covering her from anyone who wound up nearby, while Yang and Blake were supplying the main offensive.

The fight moved along at a rather awkward pace, all things considered. In the end, however, Team RWBY came out on top. Teams JNPR and MDNT were amongst the loudest to cheer for them, as they stood in the center of the arena, looking proud of their victory. Ruby even jumped into the air, cheering for their victory.

Naruto made his way down to the exit for the arena floor together with Melissa, with Troy and Diana having gone off to the fairgrounds to eat. Ruby beamed at him as her team walked out, proud of her team's victory in the first round. He grinned, "Good match, guys!"

"Thanks, Whiskers!" Yang replied. "We kicked butt!" To add emphasis, she punched her own fists together.

"We were about to go to the festival; ya wanna come, too?" Ruby asked.

"Sure!" Naruto agreed. He and Melissa were going to anyways. They had just wanted to congratulate Team RWBY.

They began to make their way to the air docks, since the arena did slight more than just a little off the ground, and none of them particularly wanted to deal with the thousand foot drop at the moment. Whilst waiting to get on the airship, Ruby suddenly asked, "Naruto! How did you kick that guy so hard in your fight?"

"Well, I was moving really fast, so that probably helped… I don't know, Ruby," Naruto answered. Best to at least be vague.

"Huh. Oh, well! Who are you guys sending to the next round?"

Melissa glanced over, "We were thinking Naruto and Troy. But Naruto says that Troy and Diana might work better."

Team RWBY stared at the blond in confusion. He shrugged, "What? They have the best teamwork on our team."

' _That, and I don't want to keep using my techniques in front of so many people. Besides, they'll enjoy it.'_

Ruby leaned her head back as she said, "Oooooooooh… That makes sense."

"Yeah, but Naruto and Troy would unstoppable! His speed and Troy's teleporting? Golden!" Melissa argued.

"Yeah, but Troy can't do that too much before he runs out of steam. He and Diana will work much better together," Naruto countered. Team RWBY looked back and forth between the two in a comedic fashion, as though watching a tennis match.

Eventually, after the line had slimmed down and they were able to board an airbus, the six students were on the fairgrounds, surrounded by tents and stands and fun galore. Ruby leapt into the air in excitement, before falling back down and clutching her stomach, "Is anyone else starving?"

Naruto and Blake chuckled at her behavior, the cat Faunus also offering up a verbal response, "I _may_ have worked up an appetite." At the perfect and purely coincidental time, Blake's stomach let out a growl that sounded more like a tiger roaring. Blake's eyes went wide as she covered her stomach, as if to silence the noise that had already passed.

"Wow, Blake. Didn't know cats could growl," Naruto joked. "I thought they just kind of... hissed."

"Yeah, give me second to get on that."

Weiss rolled her eyes at the antics of her team and friends, "You do realized there's food all around us, right?"

"She's right! So, as the leader of Team RWBY, I proclaim that we need to go eat!" Ruby thundered, clapping her hands together. "Oh! Uh… rather, Team RWBY needs to go eat… you guys can do what you want." She added, looking sheepishly at Melissa and Naruto, both of whom began to snicker to themselves.

"Nah, we were gonna come with you two. There's no telling where Diana and Troy went," Melissa responded. The six began to wander off in the direction of a random food stand, before someone called out behind them.

"Hey! Might be hard to eat without this!" Each of them turned to see a green-haired girl holding up a red wallet.

Ruby panicked at the sight of it, patting all over herself, "No, no, no, no!"

"Good to see you, Ruby," The girl continued, laughing as she gave Ruby's wallet to her.

"Oh! Thanks, Emerald! Oh. Guess I dropped it. Girl pockets are the worst!" Ruby hunched over with her arms dangling as she spoke. Naruto eyed the girl suspiciously. She had been with the black-haired woman that Kurama had warned him about at the dance. If that woman was worth the fox even mentioning, then she probably kept some pretty interesting company as well.

"What's up, Em?" Yang asked, all six of them having gather next to Ruby in front of Emerald. Apparently, Team RWBY was friends with her, though Naruto didn't know when they could have done that. There was the month-long coma, though. So that may have been when.

Regardless of when they had met the girl, she began to praise them, "Just left the stadium after your amazing fight! You guys were awesome!"

In her typical fashion when someone complimented her, Ruby blushed and began to mumble, "Oh, shut your stupid little face…"

Probably stifling a small laugh at her leader's embarrassment, Blake picked up the conversation, "I heard your team progressed to the next round too."

Weiss chimed in with her two cents, "You know, I feel that we haven't seen your other teammates."

"How'd they do in the fight?" Yang questioned.

"Really well…" Emerald answered after some hesitation, trailing off slightly.

"You guys wanna come eat with us?" Melissa asked innocently.

For a half a second, not long enough for anyone else to pick up on it, a look of disdain flashed across her face as Melissa spoke. "Oh, gosh, that's so nice of you, but my teammates are all kind of… introverted," She answered, glancing behind herself at a guy whom Naruto recognized. He had fought against him one time. "Really socially awkward."

Yang breathed in sharply, "Ooh, yeah, I could see that."

Emerald shrugged, "Oh yeah, looks like Merc and I are going to move on to the doubles round. What about you guys?"

Ruby replied proudly, "Well, as the leader of this team, I thought long and hard about this decision-"

Weiss interrupted, "We put it to a vote."

Ruby's eyes widened, "Uh- yes, and I decided that we should put it to a vote."

"We voted for Weiss and Yang," Blake finished.

Weiss curtsied, "I will happily represent Team RWBY."

"Yeah, we're going to kick some butt!" Yang exclaimed.

Emerald laughed at their excitement, "Well, if Mercury and I see you down the line, don't think we'll go easy on ya."

"We're sending Diana and Troy, apparently," Melissa added. Emerald didn't acknowledge the girl, just turned and waved goodbye to all of them. "Uh. That was weird." Team RWBY and Melissa all shrugged it off, and continued on their way to food, Naruto only hesitating for a moment as he watched the girl's retreating back.

As she walked away from the oh-so-annoying brats, Mercury sallied up next to Emerald, sarcastically asking, "So, how are the new friends?"

Emerald scowled, "I hate them."

"Orders are orders," Mercury taunted.

"I just... how can they be so _happy_ all the time?!"

Mercury shrugged, "Did you at least get what we want?"

Emerald rolled her eyes, "It's the heiress and the bimbo."

Mercury raised an eyebrow, "And?"

"'And' what?"

"What about the blond idiot?"

"He's staying out," Emerald replied. "Guess he's not that good of a fighter after all."

"Remember what Cinder said."

"I know… But I don't get why she's so obsessed. I could beat a bunch of animals, too."

Mercury sighed, "I don't know either. But hey, if you wanna disagree with her, be my guest. I'll be sure to make your grave nice and big."

"Ha. Ha."

* * *

"But she could!" Blake desperately insisted.

The cause for this desperateness? Well, Blake did, in fact, have a liking for tuna rivaled only by Naruto's undying love for ramen. A side effect of being half cat. Weiss had offered to pay for the meal, only for her card not to work. Pyrrha had then walked up with her team, offering to pay in their stead. Yang had politely said, "Aw, you don't have to."

"I think you've earned it, after that match. Oh, and you two, as well, of course," Pyrrha addressed to Naruto and Melissa. Naruto shrugged. They may have been noodles, but they still weren't anywhere close to ramen. Ramen was true art. That which only existed for a few brief moments before disappearing… into his mouth.

These were noodles in a bowl. A lot of noodles in a big bowl.

Jaune added in, "Mind if we join you?"

Besides Naruto, who refused to touch the ramen facsimile, everybody else was totally engrossed in eating for the next several minutes. By the time they were finished, everybody was clutching their stomachs, either in satisfaction or nausea.

"Hey, aren't you guys supposed to be at a match?" Melissa asked to Team JNPR.

While three of them remained calm, Jaune's eyes widened to comical proportions, and he ran off at full speed towards the airships, "We're gonna be late!"

As the rest of his team followed, Team RWBY, Melissa, and Naruto were all laughing amongst themselves. "Ah… Jaune, you loveable idiot…" Melissa muttered.

Blake tapped on Naruto's shoulder. He looked to his left at her, as she began to talk, "Hey, Naruto? Could you come with me for a moment?"

She stood, and he followed as she began to walk a short distance away. Behind him, he could hear Yang making odd noises while Ruby made sounds of adorable disgust. Blake eventually turned around when they were at the edge of the cluster of tents, "Why don't you want to fight?"

"What? It's not that I don't want to fight. I just think-"

"That Troy and Diana would fight together better? No, I don't think so, Naruto," Blake stepped in closer. "I think you don't want to accidentally use your… friend's… power."

Naruto frowned at her, "It's… uh… it's not exactly that simple. I do have to call on it for it to work, ya know. There's really no danger in it, unless I lose control of my emotions and let them cloud my judgement."

"So why don't you want to fight? You always want to fight."

"I told you. Troy and Diana work together better."

"Fine, don't tell me," She leaned in next to his ear and whispered into it. "But I'll set Yang on you if you don't."

Naruto jumped back suddenly, unfounded fear in his eyes, "You wouldn't!" He may have been the king of pranks, but Yang could still pull her punches when she wanted, like that one time with the bucket and the rubber duck.

Blake laughed at his expense, "No, I wouldn't. Not even I'm that mean." She smirked at him. "But I got you pretty good."

Naruto laughed along with her, "Yeah, yeah you did." He grinned inwardly, before wrapping his arm around her. "Well, let's head back!" Blake began to blush and sputter in embarrassment. They began to walk back, Blake not really walking, but not really resisting either.

All of a sudden, an tall Atlas student stepped out in front of them. "Excuse me, madam. Do you need me to remove this vermin?" He asked, looking Naruto up and down, sneering at his whiskers.

Now, as it turns out, it is not, in fact, a wonderful idea to insult someone based on their being a Faunus when the person you're insulting them to is also a Faunus. Blake immediately stopped blushing, and began to scowl at the man, who actually stepped back a half-step in trepidation.

"Insult him, you insult me!" Blake growled. The man gulped.

"Sorry, madam! I didn't mean to insult your preferences." It seemed the man didn't understand entirely why Blake was upset. Despite the guy having just insulted him, Naruto gave him a fair warning.

"I'd say you have about four seconds."

"Wha-"

"Three seconds."

Without another second wasted, the man turned on his heel and ran. In his wake, Naruto and Blake were merrily laughing at the student. Blake was the one who wrapped Naruto's arm around her this time, but with a somewhat bitter look on her face.

"That kind of person is exactly why I wear my bow. I feel bad for other kinds of Faunus… they can't easily hide themselves if they want to."

"Ah, come on. Do you really think everyone is like that? I mean, I've never wanted to hide my whiskers."

"I'd still rather not have people judging me before we can even talk to each other."

"Alright, but what about Faunus who think all humans are scum? Or the other way around?"

"Those people aren't worth talking to."

Naruto sighed at her rather pessimistic view of it all. In theory, the White Fang could have put a stop to all the hatred between the two. But, as with most things, it seemed, they had just become what they were trying to stop.

As they came back into view of The Simple Wok, the noodle stand they had eaten at, Naruto saw Yang staring at them with a big, goofy grin on her face. She made a strange whistling sound that for some reason caused Blake to blush and push Naruto about a foot away from herself. Naruto was thoroughly confused.

The pair sat back down for only a second, after which Ruby jumped to her feet, proclaiming, "We need to go watch Team JNPR fight!"

Of course, the fight had already started, and largely ended, by the time they all sat down in the stands. Jaune was talking to his team exasperatedly, like he was trying to get a point across, while the other team stared in shock and disbelief. The entire crowd was booing at them.

"What do you think you're doing!?" One of their opponents finally yelled over to them.

Jaune turned around, rather annoyed at the interruption, "Trying to have a team meeting, thank you very little!"

Nora added, "Yeah! Team ears only!"

The guy who yelled before looked to his teammates with the same look of shock, while they simply shrugged in confusion. He yelled again, "WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!"

Jaune whipped around, actually angry this time, "AND WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION! WHAT DON'T YOU GET ABOUT THAT!?"

From where they were sitting, Team RWBY, as well as Naruto and Melissa, could see Pyrrha tap on Jaune's shoulder. They couldn't make out the words, but after a moment Jaune began to rub his forehead with his sword hand, as Nora jumped towards the opposing team, smacking all of them with a hammer and sending them flying out of the ring, winning Team JNPR the match.

Port's voice boomed throughout the arena, "And with that, it appears Team JNPR wins by knockout, literally! ...Can someone go make sure they're okay?"

* * *

Amidst their laughing and cheering for Team JNPR, Naruto asked Ruby who the next fight was. She shrugged, "I think it was… Team-"

Oobleck's voice drowned her out, "Ah, well, Vacuo fans are sure to be hurting after that one, but this next one will have them on the edge of their seats!"

Port picked up, "Team NDGO of Shade is certainly a crowd favorite, but these lovely ladies are going against some of the toughest, testosterone-filled teammates we've seen so far! I'm of course talking about... Team SSSN! Sun Wukong and his team are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and although he'll be representing the Mistral Academy of Haven, I'm sure his friends and family back in Vacuo will be cheering him along!"

"Oh, he. It's Sun. I almost forgot about him," Naruto remarked, leaning back into his seat. "Wonder what he's been doing."

"He and Neptune were doing Junior Detective jobs last time we talked to them," Ruby answered. Then she put her finger on her chin. "Although, Weiss sometimes talk abo-" The aforementioned Schnee covered Ruby's mouth with her hand, reaching over Yang to do so.

"Ruby, please do shut up."

"3! 2! 1! Begin!" Oobleck's voice resounded all throughout the coliseum. Looking at the arena, Naruto saw two rather interesting settings to choose from. For some reason, Neptune had climbed a giant rock on the enemy's side. That side was a desert full of rocky formations, while the other side was an ocean complete with a crashed pirate ship.

As entertaining as the fight was when it began, it quickly turned into a joke, and a somewhat large one at that. For one thing, Sun seemed to be the only one who wasn't goofing off, whereas, for example, Neptune just kept looking away from the fight happening in the oceanic area.

When the fight started, Neptune had immediately dashed past the other team, and climbed the rocks at light speed. After a brief dialogue of confusion, the four girls of Team NDGO charged towards him, with the rest of Team SSSN chasing them. Though it didn't take long for the fight to start, Octavia still had time to prepare for a dramatic leap out from behind a sand dune. Scarlet, whom she had leapt towards, attempted to cut her in half, only for her to duck under the blade as she slid past.

As she kept sliding along the ground, she passed by Sage and Dew, the former lifting his great blade over his head, and coming down with a mighty slice, which was rebuffed by the female's staff. They both skidded back several feet, creating a small, thin dust cloud. Apparently inspired by it, Dew began to revolve the end of her staff, creating several small tornados with wind Dust.

The three whirlwinds combined after spinning around Sage for a few moments, sucking him up into the much larger cyclone. The winds spun faster and faster, eventually flinging him from the arena entirely. Sun and Scarlet watched him fly out, before turning their attentions back to the girl in front of them, Octavia.

She spun around, slashing her sword towards them, creating a wave of fire that sped towards the two. Scarlet covered his face, while Sun ran in the opposite direction, calling up to Neptune. The blue-haired boy jumped down from his rocky vigil, right before Octavia slashed at him, too. He lowered his goggles over his eyes, shielding them from the sand that was kicked up.

From his impromptu sand cover, Neptune fired at Octavia. She raised her sword to block it, right after which Sun flew out from in front of the fake sun above the arena, delivering a neck-cracking kick to Octavia's face. She stumbled back several feet, obviously not pleased with the attack. She lunged back forward with her sword, which Sun countered with his staff.

He delivered several more attacks to her while she tried to recover from them, failing each time. Finally, Sun slammed the end of his staff into her face, sending her flopping along the ground, defeated.

"Oh, and we're down to three-on-three!" Port boomed. Sun looked over to his teammates, where Neptune was fighting two, and Scarlet was fighting Dew. Scarlet was swept up into a twister, and sent flying off towards the ocean area. Nebula and Gwen followed after him. In midair, Scarlet turned himself around, somewhat gracefully grabbing onto the mast of the pirate ship, and winding around it up onto the wooden beam.

Nebula fired her crossbow at the mast, lodging an arrow that she used to spring up to where Scarlet was. Her crossbow transformed into a sword, and she and Scarlet began to duel. Scarlet countered her horizontal swipe, but she brought the blade back around. This time, he ducked under the slash, then slashed upwards with his own sword to counter her bringing the sword back.

Mostly in frustration, Nebula head-butted him, to which he responded with a kick across the face. She swung to the other side of the mast, bringing her sword up to block Scarlet's follow-up. She raised her blade over her head, bringing it down, only for Scarlet to hold his blade against it, bent backwards. He grabbed the not-pointy bits, and pushed it upwards, slashing at her feet at the same time. She jumped over the haphazard attack.

He spun around, and elbowed her off of the beam, letting her fall into the sand below. Scarlet looked down at the battlefield to see Sun getting double-teamed. He pulled out his flintlock pistol, using the grappling hook in its handle to grab onto Gwen's foot, and hoist her up over the mast while he dropped down. Unfortunately for him, several throwing knives fell from the folds of her dress, right towards him. Somehow, he managed to dodge all of them.

Octavia leapt across the water at Sun, who improvised and slammed his fist into a tree, getting it to drop two coconuts. He lobbed them at the girl, only for her to slam her staff into them, hitting them so hard that they began to flame as they traveled back towards them. Sun precariously dodged each of them, only for them to go sailing straight into the unfortunate Scarlet's head and… other head. His Aura dropped incredibly, and he fell over in pain, unable to go on.

Sun muttered to himself, while Octavia smirked at him, as she created tornados of water, sending them towards the monkey Faunus. She dodged out of the way of each of them, trying to get Neptune to help him, while the other boy merely rambled about some lockdown, while Nebula freed Gwen from he hanging prison.

Eventually, Neptune shot Octavia out of the air over Sun, sending her into the water behind him. Her teammates dropped down next to her, while Sun shouted, "NEPTUNE!"

Eventually, the fight was concluded when Neptune carefully tiptoed up to the edge of the water, sinking his electric halberd into it, shocking all three of the remaining members of Team NDGO, all of whom were still standing in the water for some reason, rather than on the dry land right next to them, or trying to attack the two guys in the center.

Port's voice once again came through the system, "And with that, Team SSSN moves on to the doubles round!" Still on the speakers, he asked Oobleck a question. "You know what I call that victory?"

Oobleck's Yang-approved response was a pun, "Shocking?"

Port spoke in a deadpan, "No. Well-earned. What you said is stupid."

Naruto could have sworn he heard Oobleck whimper.

* * *

Elsewhere, in a dingy bar named the Crow Bar, the bartender commented on the outcome of the fight to his only customer, "Now that was a match!

The familiar looking man responded in a light slur, "Heh, that was a mess!"

"Come on man, you didn't like them, the Vale kids, or any of the rounds before that? What fight are you here for?"

The man looked out the entrance to the bar, seeing an elegant looking airship flying towards Beacon "That one... Happy Vytal Festival!" He called over his shoulder as he walked out.

* * *

"Well?"

"He's not fighting in Round Two."

"Hm… that's a bit of a shame… I had hoped to see more of his abilities."

Cinder closed her eyes, thinking to herself. No one had seen it, not even her, but for the briefest moment during the blond Faunus's fight against Team GNGR, she had felt the Maiden's power practically thrashing around at him. Not, of course, that it could actually do that.

But nevertheless, she wanted to see what he had done to cause such a volatile reaction as that. So this news that he wasn't going to be fighting in the next round was disappointing. Besides that, she still needed to select when to start her plan. She could do it when Mercury's opponent broke his leg, or she could find some other time… But when?

On top of that, there were still a few students she knew less than she wished about. The blond Faunus being one, the 'Invincible Girl' being another. One she would probably have to wait for, but she did want to know why this Pyrrha Nikos had such a glamorous title.

Which was why she'd had Emerald befriend Team RWBY. No doubt some of them knew about the redhead, no? And like mice, they fell right into the trap. During a 'friendly' spar, Pyrrha had demonstrated her Semblance in the form of lifting her shield off the ground without touching it.

Magnetism. And a girl subtle enough to hide it in the heat of battle. After figuring out what the semblance was, it was only a matter of time before Cinder had realized how she used it in a way that no one caught one. Thus, the glass swords she now possessed.

But while that was all well and good, it didn't really help her current conundrum any. She supposed that the leg-breaking would have to suffice for the catalyst for doomsday. A killing is what she really needed. For one of Beacon's students to kill another student, preferably from a different Kingdom. That oughta sway people's emotions.

* * *

"That concludes the matches for today. Please leave the Coliseum IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION!" Oobleck boomed.

Yang was the first to recover from having her ears assaulted, "Come on, let's go find something fun to do."

"Wait, you don't think we should go congratulate them?" Melissa questioned. Yang shrugged, and began to walk off, followed by Melissa. The rest of them followed suit, until Weiss suddenly stopped, looking over at an airship flying past the arena.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked, after bumping into her. With his years of intense, rigorous, gut-wrenchingly difficult shinobi training, Naruto was able to not take the two steps that would make him do the same to Ruby. Blake looked past him for why they had stopped.

When Weiss spoke, still watching the aircraft, she had something akin to joy in her voice, but mixed with strain, by the sounds of it, "She's here…"

"Who?" Naruto queried. Weiss ignored him, and just began to run to the exit. Ruby followed closely, leaving Naruto and Blake to question everything that had just happened before them.

"Well, I guess we could follow them…" Blake proposed. Naruto shook his head.

"Nah. I'm sure it's not our business."

"Really? You're not just a little curious?"

"Curiosity killed the cat."

Blake chuckled at the joke, "Whatever. Let's just go find Yang and Melissa."

And so, the two Faunus wandered off in the same direction as Yang and Melissa, intent on finding them, as Blake suggested. Since they knew where they were headed, it was much easier than perhaps it would have been otherwise.

"-with the fight, Sun," Yang was saying. It seemed they just met up as well.

"Thanks, Yang," replied the half-monkey.

"Yeah, nice job out there," Naruto added when he was close enough. Sun turned towards him, and for a moment, Sun had a distasteful look in his eyes, like he was looking at trash that someone had thrown on the ground randomly.

"Yeah, thanks," He responded indifferently. Naruto cocked his head at the tone. "Is there anything else?"

"Uh- No, just wanted to say good job," Naruto was confused. He had thought he and Sun got along fairly well. So he wasn't sure where the hostility was coming from. "Uh… bye, then."

Realizing he wasn't wanted at the moment, Naruto decided to simply wander off. Maybe he could find Ruby and Weiss. For that matter, where were Troy and Diana? Oh, well. Mysteries for later. For now, he did kind of want to find out why Weiss had been so distressed.

He knew she had been looking up at an airship, so the logical place to start looking was not, unfortunately, a ramen stand. He was getting hungry. No, instead the best place to start would be the docks.

But, when he went out, he couldn't find them. So, perhaps they were at Beacon's docks. Getting down by way of airship would take to long for his liking, so he merely stepped off the floating arena, dropping several hundred stories.

With chakra reinforcing his legs, Naruto slammed into the ground far below with little damage at all. From where he had landed, it was a short enough run to Beacon's docks. Soon enough, he was on the path to them, passing through the courtyard. As he did, he saw a conglomeration of people off near where the ships docked, wrapped in a circle.

He frowned, wondering why so many people would be gathered around. He would have to wait for the answer to that question, as a faint whiff of something had his nostrils caught. It was familiar, but not enough so that he really recognized it. He was close to the edge of the circle now, and could see a familiar white color inside it. He ran up next to Weiss, taking just a moment to register the similar looking woman next to her, and the Atlesian robots all around, including the two lying on the ground next to-

"Hey, Kid. Haven't seen you in a while," Qrow slurred, looking straight at Naruto. He was definitely drunk again. Naruto grinned at him, and answered perhaps more causally than was called for in this circumstance.

"Hey, old man. Where've ya been?"

"Hey! Don't ever call me old."

Weiss turned to Naruto, "You know him, too?"

"Yeah, he's-"

"Enough!" yelled the woman next to Weiss. She brandished a sword towards Qrow. "If you won't hold your tongue, I will gladly remove it for you!"

Qrow went back to cheekily smirking at her, "Alright then." He made a show of slicking back his hair with his hand. "Come take it."

* * *

 **Ah, another one done. Though it's a little shorter than I would like.**

 **Until Chapter 16!**


	16. Chapter 16: The Next Round

**Disclaimer: I don't know what else to say, honestly.**

* * *

Chapter 16: The Next Round

As Naruto watched, the two fighters regarded each other for several moments. There was tension in the air, enough to choke a person. He knew Qrow was good, great even. But if this person would challenge him… This must have been what it was like when he challenged Pyrrha to a fight. People were still gathered around them, waiting. Qrow had his smirk on his face, taunting the woman to charge in.

And did she. Faster than even he could track, she vanished, reappearing right in front of Qrow, poised to stab him in the face. He lazily moved his head to the left, avoiding the blade. When she tried again, he moved the right. She tried slashing, but he just tilted his head to the side. Once again, she stabbed, only for him to shift to the left, then the right when she tried another stab. Not learning anything, she tried another stab that he dodged to the left of, before her final stab was dodged with a cheeky bow.

She slashed downwards, only to hit his sword, mounted on his back. He gripped the hilt in a reverse grip, then spun around, ending with him holding the blade normally up to her own saber. Naruto was actually a little impressed. All of those stabs and dodges took place over barely a second. Hell, that was almost faster than _he_ could attack. So then, this was the power of a veteran huntsman or huntress. And yet, neither one of them even really seemed to be trying too hard. At least, Qrow was very lax about the whole exchange.

"Who is she?" he asked, leaning over towards Weiss.

"My sister, Winter."

"Oh… What did he do?"

"He-"

Once again, the two began to trade blows, with Qrow being rather aggressive. He slashed downwards, pinning Winter's blade under his own, before he slashed upwards from there, an attack which she dodged with relative ease. He spun, using the momentum to fuel another swipe. She ducked under it, just barely. She began a number of handsprings backwards, avoiding each one of his numerous powerful attacks.

In the middle of the courtyard, she blocked one of his slices with her much smaller sword, and pushed it away. Each one copped at the other, their blows meeting in the middle and making a small-scale shockwave. In retaliation, both of them tried a low slash, only to once again block each other. Qrow ducked under Winter's next attack, then brought his blade up.

She managed to block the attack, countering with her own slash at his turned back. He blocked it with his sword, held over his shoulder. She brought her blade around once more, which he this time blocked with his hilt. She swiped in the same fashion, only for him to meet her with a slash of his own. She tried one more time, but was blocked again.

Ruby ran up next to them, "What's going on?!"

"Qrow showed up!" Naruto excitedly answered. Ruby's eyes widened with excitement.

"Really!?" She turned to the fight. "KICK HER BUTT, UNCLE QROW!"

Weiss seemed to take issue with that particular cheer, "Teach him respect, Winter!"

Apparently, their previous level of combat wasn't good enough, as both fighters began to seemingly teleport around between each attack. In reality, they were simply moving so fast that to everyone who wasn't Naruto or Ruby, they disappeared for a moment at a time between attacks.

They went back and forth, Qrow's attacks being followed swiftly by a counter from Winter, and so on. Eventually, they ended up moving through the circle of people, all of whom swiftly moved away. Winter bent backwards underneath one of Qrow's attacks, then responded by slamming her hilt across his face. He turned back to her, a wild gleam in his eye, grinning like a madman.

He brought his sword far above his head, and Winter's eyes widened before she used a glyph to glide backwards out of the way of a powerful smash, delivered instead into the courtyard, breaking it to a small crater. Naruto held his arms in front of his face against the shockwave, which was intense. Qrow seemed pretty strong. As in, jonin-strong. Hell, he might have even been able to give Kakashi-sensei a run for his money.

Winter had leapt into the air, moving away from Qrow. He gave chase, and wound up slicing a light post in two when he attacked her. While he brought his blade back to block her next attack, she flipped over him, unsuccessfully slashing in midair. She landed on his other side, and without even looking, jumped over his counterattack, landing on his blade when it stopped. She smirked down at him, the flipped backwards off the sword, kicking him in the face for good measure.

She landed on the destroyed lamppost, then jumped backwards once more to dodge the thrown weapon. Qrow's sword imbedded itself into the metal, while Winter got away from the failed attack. Qrow dashed forwards, grabbing his sword out of the post and firing at Winter the instant she landed on the railing on the walkway above. She immediately leapt off once again, dodging the bullet. Qrow observed her for a moment, before running down the walkway, firing at her more while she ran down the raised platform. He leapt up onto his own archways, and continued to fire at her, until a cloud of smoke shot up.

Winter shot out of it after a second, straight at Qrow. He readied his blade, but she produced another sword from within her first, then continued her charge at him through the air, second blade held to her side. She spun in midair, slamming both of her swords into Qrow's. A larger shockwave than before shot out of the impact, and the archway cracked. Then it broke, and the two went flying towards the ground. They slammed into it at full speed, cratering the ground. They resumed their attack –and-counter combat, until Winter pushed him away with a block.

He slid several meters, back to the circle of people. He had even stabbed his sword into the ground to slow himself down, thus creating a trail along the ground. He grinned back at the Schnee. She twirled her saber in her hand, then stabbed it into the ground, producing a glyph, from which flew a flock of tiny Nevermores, all towards Qrow. He held his sword in front of his face, and killed a few of them, but the sheer number almost overwhelmed him.

Almost. He slashed downwards, creating a wave of energy the hurtled towards Winter, forcing her to cut off the strange summoning technique. Naruto had blinked a few times when she initiated it. How odd that such a similar technique to one of his own existed in this world.

A glyph appeared in the air behind Winter, one which prompted Qrow to shift his blade. The sword's segmented sections separated, and it began to curve into a shape that almost resembled a scythe. Before the transformation could finish, Qrow smirked, and stopped it, reverting the sword back to its sword form, and placing it on his back once again. Winter growled, visibly angered by this. She was even more annoyed when row cheekily beckoned her forward with his finger, aloof expression on his face.

She readied her attack, and flung herself forwards faster than Naruto had seen anyone do in this world so far, including Ruby. But she stopped just as suddenly, her saber hovering not an inch away from Qrow's neck, when a voice rang out, "SCHNEE!"

Winter stiffened, standing up as straight as she could, before dutifully turning to face the man who had shouted. Naruto looked him up and down, and saw that it was General Ironwood. He was a somewhat imposing figure, all things considered. Behind him, Ruby's friend Penny was awkwardly standing still, silently. "General Ironwood! Sir!" Winter let out in a hoarse-sounding voice. It sounded like a mixture of fear and the fact that she had been unnecessarily yelling out battle cries the entire fight.

He began to stride towards her, "What in the world do you think you're doing?"

"He started the altercation, Sir!" She tried to defend. Behind her, Qrow crossed his hands behind his head.

"That's actually not true," he interjected, leaning out from behind the Schnee. "She attacked first."

Ironwood turned back to Winter, "Is this true?" She looked like she wanted to argue, but looked down in concession. Ironwood turned about, observing the crowd. His eyes fell briefly on Naruto, before he looked back to Qrow, "And you… What are you doing here?"

"I could be asking you the same thing," he rebuked.

"I-"

"Now, now, everyone," called a new voice. Ozpin and Glynda were walking into the still-formed circle of people. There is a sanctioned fight happening just around the corner at the Coliseum, that I can assure you has better seats... and popcorn."

' _Wait, but didn't Oobleck say that there were no more fights today?'_

Naruto's mental question would go unanswered, however. Glynda aggressively stepped forwards, "Break it up, everyone! We will take care of this mess."

Ironwood beckoned to Winter, "Let's go."

As he began to walk away, his gaze turned back to Naruto for a moment. The general looked him up and down, with his eyes narrowing. Naruto raised an eyebrow. Apparently, he wasn't worth the mighty general's time, as he simply kept walking past the blond.

"UNCLE QROW!" Ruby yelled out as she jumped onto Qrow's arm. "Hi. It's so good to see you! Did ya miss me? Did ya miss me!?"

Qrow waited a moment before answering, "Nope." They both grinned as he rubbed her head.

"Qrow!" Ozpin called out. Qrow lowered his arm back to his side, causing Ruby to drop to the ground. "A word, please."

He mumbled to Ruby, "I think I'm in trouble…"

She shrugged, "You did kinda tear up our courtyard."

Qrow grinned again, "Yeah, I did. Catch ya later, kid"

Naruto and Weiss walked up next to her. Naruto leaned in, "Is that something he normally does?"

"Nah. He doesn't usually damage the ground as much."

Naruto and Ruby chuckled to themselves. Weiss interrupted, "And suddenly, your reckless nature makes sense."

"You're just mad because he whooped butt," Ruby grinned up at Naruto, while nudging Weiss shoulder.

Weiss crossed her arms, "That was a draw, at best!" Ruby and Naruto glanced at her, before grinning at each other in disagreement.

"So… what now?" Naruto asked.

* * *

In Ozpin's office, Winter was furiously pacing back and forth, waiting for the elevator to open. When it finally did, she chewing out Qrow in an instant, "What were you thinking!?"

Ironwood added on angrily, "If you were one of my men, I would have you shot!"

Qrow pulled out a flask as he exited the elevator with Ozpin and Glynda, "If I was one of your men, I'd shoot myself."

Goodwitch crossed her arms next to Ozpin's desk, "While I wouldn't condone his behavior, retaliating like you did certainly didn't help the situation."

Winter shouted, "He was drunk!"

Goodwitch shouted back, "He's always drunk!" Ozpin, Glynda, Winter, and Iron turned to Qrow to see him drinking from a flask. His eyes widened when he noticed them staring, and he held the flask out to the side, looking at it awkwardly before he shrugged.

Ozpin stared at Qrow in shock for a moment, then sighed and sat down, head in his hand, "Qrow, why are you here?"

Ironwood began to yell at him, "You've been out of contact for weeks! You can't just go dark like that in the field!"

Qrow put his flask back on his hip, "I'm not one of your special operatives, Jimmy!"

Winter growled, "General."

Qrow brushed her off angrily, "Whatever. You sent me to get intel on our enemy, and I'm telling you, our enemy is here."

Ironwood leaned against Ozpin's desk, looking down, "We know."

Qrow raised his arms in disbelief, "Oh! Oh, you know! Well, thank goodness I'm out there risking my life to keep you all informed!"

Ironwood tried to argue, "Qrow-"

Qrow pulled out a scroll, "Communication's a two-way street, pal. You see this?" He pointed at the scroll in his hand, "That's the SEND button."

"They had reason to assume you'd been compromised," Winter countered.

"And I have reason to assume you don't need to be here." Qrow pointed to Winter. "Seriously, who invited her?"

Ironwood turned his head to a slight angle, not looking at his soldier, "Schnee, we'll discuss this incident back at my ship."

Winter tried to argue, "But sir!"

Ironwood insisted, "Winter. Leave."

Winter saluted him, "Yes sir." She spun on her heel and gave the winking Qrow a dirty look as she exited.

Ironwood spoke up once the elevator doors closed, "Go on…"

Qrow sighed, "Your little infiltrator isn't just another pawn. They're the one responsible for Autumn's condition." He took a drink from his flask.

"We know," Ozpin interjected, just before Glynda could speak. All three turned to him, two in shock and one in anger.

"What do you mean, Ozzie? Qrow asked.

"I was informed that there were two sources of the Maiden's power at Beacon. I have begun to search for whom it may be. One is undoubtedly Amber, the other would most likely be her assailant."

"Who told you that?" Ironwood questioned in disbelief.

"A source that wished to remain anonymous."

"Whoever it is can go to hell; we need to know if this person has intel on Salem, on the Grimm," The general insisted. "How else would they know about the Maidens?"

"I can assure you: this person will know nothing we do not."

"How can you be so sure?" The general wasn't going to let this go, it seemed.

Ozpin refused, "I will say no more on this matter."

"Ozpin, I need to know all I can so that my army can-"

"So that your army can what, Jimmy? Protect us?" Qrow cut in.

"If need be, yes."

"So what, you think the Grimm'll run in fear of your paper ships?" Qrow remarked. "These things she's made, they don't feel fear. They don't run scared, Jimmy. They'll tear your fleet to pieces."

For seemingly nothing but dramatics, Ironwood placed his scroll in Ozpin's desk, bringing up a holographic projection of his fleet. "Do you see _this_? This is what keeps the world safe, what brings people a sense of security. She and all her allies will feel our strength."

"Oh, yeah? And what about things like this 'Vulpecula?' How are you gonna deal with that?"

"We'll-"

"If I may… I believe its proper name is Kyūbi," Ozpin interrupted. Once again, all three stared at him.

"How do you know that?" Qrow asked.

"I simply delved into some old legends and stories, seeking to find mention of any fox Grimm. I found one from an old village by the name of Konohagakure no Sato," Ozpin explained. "It was referred to as just the Kyūbi."

"Where is this village?" Ironwood asked. "Perhaps they knew how to deal with it."

"The village is long since destroyed, with most of its records lost."

"Where was it, Oz?" Ironwood repeated.

"It was located rather far from any modern Kingdom. I'm given to understand it was mighty in its day."

"Where. Exactly?"

"The area is unclear. The only thing that is certain is that it is located on Sanus."

"What did these stories say it could do?" Glynda asked.

"Its abilities are unclear. However, it was described as being a gargantuan fox, towering over even mountains. Obviously, these descriptions differ somewhat from what appeared in Broadsworth. However, I believe it to be the same creature."

"So, Jim, how are you gonna deal with this one?" Qrow asked mockingly. "You gonna send your army against this thing?"

"We will find some way to deal with it."

"That may be unnecessary," Ozpin claimed. "These stories, while not detailing further, included that the founder of the village could control the Grimm."

"What? A Grimm that can be controlled?" Ironwood questioned. "That's impossible."

"So was a Grimm having an Aura, and yet this one did," Ozpin disputed.

"We don't know that for sure. It could have just been a unique ability this thing had."

"Mr. Resdomindo told that its skin, covered in a red hue, disrupted his attack in the same way that a powerful Aura does."

"Imperius?" Qrow asked. "You let that pompous asshole take this thing on?"

"Not by choice. He led the mission on which it appeared."

"Who else was on this mission?" Qrow queried.

"A team of first years, Team MDNT."

"Who's on it?"

"Melissa Mikeham, Diana Grout, Naruto Uzumaki, and Troy Davores."

"Huh…" Qrow drank out of his flask again. The kid, huh?

"That doesn't settle the issue, Oz," The general cut in. "We need to be able to kill this thing if it shows up again."

"And I told you: that may not be necessary. If I can locate more of this village's records, I may find the details on how this man controlled a Grimm. Think of how powerful a weapon that would become."

The general raised an eyebrow in interest, "You think that you could control it if you knew how?" Ozpin nodded. "But if you don't now, then it's a threat. We need a way to deal with it until you find this information."

* * *

"Where are we going?"

Naruto looked back at Ruby and Blake, addressing the smaller girl who had asked the question, "I dunno. I'm not even sure why you two are following me."

"You look like you're doing something fun. I gotta wait for Uncle Qrow to out of Ozpin's office."

"I'm here because Yang keeps making jokes at me."

"Hm…" Naruto thought for a moment. "Alright, who wants to go to Vale?"

"And do what?" Blake asked.

"I'm gonna stay here. I wanna see Uncle Qrow."

"Hm… We could go get some food."

"Alright. Let's just go to the festival, though. They'll have more food."

"You just want more tuna, don't you?"

"…"

"…" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Yes…"

"Alright, c'mon."

Ruby stayed behind, heading to the dorms, while Naruto and Blake traveled to the fairgrounds. The walk wasn't too long, not with them being as close to Beacon as they were. Upon arrival, they found it to be far more crowded than earlier, on account of the fights being done for the day. All those people who had stayed in the arena for all the fights were now milling around the festivities.

Luckily, a Simple Wok was free of the horde. By now, Naruto was hungry enough that he was willing to try the noodles. Blake, for the second time that day, got a bowl of noodles, albeit smaller than earlier. They ate in relative silence, finishing their respective meals with gusto. Naruto had to admit, the noodles weren't bad.

"That was delicious," Blake remarked with satisfaction. Naruto nodded. "Think Troy and Diana'll fight Yang and Weiss?"

"Ya never know; they might," Naruto leaned in just a little. "We're gonna win."

Blake smirked, and shook her head, "You'll get Weiss, then Yang'll beat both your teammates."

"You wanna bet on it?" Naruto asked with a grin. Then his face fell. "Oh, Kami… I'm becoming Ero-Sennin."

Blake laughed, "I'd rather not bet on our teams fighting."

By the time the two had finished their meals, the sun was rather low in the sky. They began to make their way back towards the dorms, seeking to not be out after dark fell. Yang would never let them hear the end of it if they were.

Soon enough, Naruto said his farewell to Blake, continuing on to his own dorm. Upon arrival, he found Melissa and Troy talking, with Melissa nodding in what seemed to be understanding. Her head shot to the door as soon as he opened it. "Oh, good. You're here," she remarked. "So, Troy doesn't want to fight in the second round. He says he doesn't have the energy to win."

"And Diana?"

"Well, of course she wants to fight. Have you met her?" Melissa asked, gesturing behind herself at the bouncing rainbow girl. She was bouncing on her bed, performing all sorts of acrobatic feats while in the air. "So, we need you and her to fight for us in round two."

"I can't help but feel like I don't get a choice here. Alright, I'll fight."

What was the worst that could happen, anyways? He probably wouldn't have to use Sage Mode at all, and he doubted anyone could make him angry enough to bring out Kurama's chakra, if the fox would even offer it. Melissa smiled, "Oh, good. That's great."

* * *

"And you're sure?" Cinder asked.

Mercury nodded, "Bad hair, used a scythe, and smelled like my dad after a long day. It was him."

Emerald appeared to be worried, "What do we do?"

Cinder thought for but a moment, before smirking to herself, "Nothing. We stay the course. They have no idea who we are, so we have no reason to worry. Besides, the last of the heavy lifting is being taken care of thanks to our clever little friend. Speaking of which, it appears we have a new access point." The image of Ironwood appeared briefly in the top right of the screen.

"Anywhere good?" Emerald inquired.

Cinder smirked further, "You could say that. Go to your rooms. I'll prepare everything for tomorrow."

Emerald and Mercury both answered affirmatively, before leaving.

Cinder pulled up the roster and matchups for the next day, all of which were meant to be random. She muttered, "Let's give the crowd a good fight…" She scrolled on one side until Emerald and Mercury were in the slots. On the other side, it took her a moment to find the team she was looking for. When she did, she smirked, setting down the scroll that now displayed a grinning blond and a girl wearing a diorama of colors.

* * *

"Man, first up two days in a row? This is just weird," Naruto remarked, looking up at the randomization board. He and Diana would be facing off against the two people he had been watching warily yesterday, as per Kurama's advice.

Port's voice came over through the speakers, "The randomization process is complete! Ladies and gentlemen, your doubles tournament fight!"

He and Diana made their way down to the arena itself, to get in place for the fight. As they entered, they could see their opponents doing the same on the other side. The grey-haired guy smirked at Naruto as the four of them met in the center.

The screens around the arena began to shuffle through different arenas once again, though, to Naruto's surprise, this time four sections were chosen. Behind Emerald and Mercury, a plain of tall grass and one tree rose up. Behind themselves, a geyser field. To their left, there was the same destroyed city as yesterday, just halved in size to be a quarter of the area. The final area was a forest.

"Hey, you," Emerald called out to Naruto. He pointed to himself.

"Yeah?"

"I thought you weren't gonna fight anymore."

"Our teammate changed his mind."

Mercury and Emerald looked to each other. Cinder hadn't told them about that, and they weren't sure what they were supposed to do in this circumstance. They supposed they should just fight as normal, like they were planning to.

"Three! Two! One! Begin!"

Without another word, Emerald and Mercury stepped back into the tall grass behind them, becoming obscured from view. Naruto raised an eyebrow, then turned to an excited Diana and nodded. She beamed even wider, pulling her massive sword off of her back. She swept it out in front of her, sending of a wave of fire, courtesy of the new Dust she used. The grass caught fire, and began to quickly burn to the ground.

Mercury sprang out of it, rocketing towards the rainbow girl through the air. Diana held her blade to the ground, and Naruto began to run up it, before she gave a mighty heave, launching him at the boy in the air. Mercury's eyes widened, but he kept himself calm and shot his boots down at Naruto multiple times, simultaneously launching himself further into the air.

Naruto managed to block most of the shots, but his sword wasn't meant for blocking, and so the few that got through sent him back down to the ground. He stood, switching to his pistol, and firing up at the now-falling guy. He turned over, and fired his boots into the air, rocketing down at the blond. Naruto rolled out of the way, right as a sickle connected to a chain wrapped around his leg. He felt a pull, and suddenly found himself hurtling into the forest.

Thinking quickly, Naruto fired a few bullets into the chain, trying to break it. His efforts, unfortunately, were in vain, and he was tossed into a tree when the chain was unraveled. He landed on his feet by the time he hit the ground, looking around for who he assumed was Emerald. He thought he saw movement in the trees, but it was gone before he could focus on it.

Naruto heard a voice from behind, "Hey, Naruto." He whipped around, then frowned when he saw Ruby calmly walking towards him, as though she wasn't in the middle of a tournament fight.

"Ruby, what are you doing here? Get out of the arena!" he hissed at her. She smirked in a very non-Ruby way, and he felt something heavy and metal slam into the back of his head with more than a little force. "Gah!"

He fell to one knee, but looked around behind him for his attacker. He saw no one. Before he could question himself, he felt immense pain in his chest, and looked down to see two bullets holes that were bleeding profusely. He tried to track the direction they came from, but the forest seemed like it was almost moving.

One more time, he felt that metal object, but this time it came as a stabbing pain in his shoulder. With all the blood he'd already lost, combined with the general pain, he began to black out, still trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

Melissa watched the Aura board with worry, as Naruto's kept trickling down steadily. Eventually, it fell to thirteen, and Port announced, "It seems Mr. Uzumaki has been caught unaware by his opponent! But what's this? Ms. Sustrai's Aura has also dropped down to the red! No, wait! It's all the way down to zero!"

He was right. Right after Naruto's fell to the red, Emerald's had shot down to zero, right from a hundred. Naruto must have done something that had only taken effect afterwards. Meanwhile, Mercury was giving Diana hell. He was clearly more talented than she was. She could barely keep up a reasonable defense, but even that didn't completely keep his attacks from getting through.

He smirked at her, then fired two bullets at her, using them as a distraction as he fired easily a hundred more, all circling around them in a cloud of white death. He ran at her, kicking upwards against her sword. She couldn't keep a grip on it, and it went flying into the air, far out of her reach. With her more or less defenseless, he brought all of his bullets down on her, sending her Aura level down to eight by the time it was over.

Port awarded Mercury and Emerald the victory, obviously. Troy and Melissa ran out onto the field afterwards, not for any real reason, just to get their teammates. By the time they reached Diana, Mercury came out of the woods, carrying a visibly fine but unconscious Emerald, and a bloody, torn-up Naruto out of the woods. Melissa's eyes widened when she saw Naruto, and she ran over, taking him from Mercury.

"Oh, dear," Port came through. "Could a doctor please report to the Coliseum?"

Soon enough, Naruto was laid out on a stretcher, then carried out and to an ambulance, with two doctors trying to staunch the bleeding once he arrived. It appeared that Emerald, when she had been fighting him, had hit not one, but two major arteries. It was a miracle he wasn't already dead.

Only Melissa came with him, since Troy needed to stay behind until Diana woke up, and the ambulance didn't have time to wait for anyone else like Blake to arrive. That, and Melissa didn't think to tell them to wait for the Faunus.

The doctors immediately went about removing the bullets, needing to get them out before they could stop the bleeding. Somewhat luckily, somewhat unluckily, one of the bullets had gone through all the way, leaving them with only one they needed to remove. It was imbedded very lightly, too, having hit one of Naruto's ribs, which had somehow stood up to it, for the most part.

Melissa just sat by his head, staring the whole time. His eyes kept twitching, like he was awake but only vaguely aware of it. Eventually, the ambulance reached the hospital, where Naruto was transferred to ICU, as a result of the severity of two of his wounds, the head trauma, and all the blood he'd lost. Melissa was required to stay in the waiting room, in the meantime.

* * *

"You idiot!"

Emerald knew better than to dodge when Cinder punished her. She had, for no better way of phrasing, fucked up royally. "If it hadn't been for Mercury's quick thinking, you might have killed the boy!" Cinder was not happy, obviously. Her plans had almost been sent into a downwards spiral, fast. "You should consider yourself fortunate that you didn't kill him, or I would've done the same to you!"

"I- I'm sorry, Cinder."

"Oh, are you? For nearly derailing all my carefully laid plans? For nearly ruining the chance for my power to grow even more?"

"I… I didn't mean to do all that, it was-"

"No excuses! Your foolishness nearly cost us everything we've worked towards for months."

"IT WAS IN HIS HEAD!" Emerald shouted, cutting off Cinder.

"Excuse me?"

"There was… There was… _something_ in his head. It was… terrifying. It was like his mind was pure evil and hate."

"Oh? And what is that supposed to mean?" Cinder, after her explosion of anger, seemed to be calming just a little.

"I don't know. His head is… I couldn't even think while I was attacking him. Trying to mess with his mind was like… I can't put it into words," Emerald put her hands to her throbbing head, trying to banish the thoughts.

Inside the boy's head, she'd only begun to exert her Semblance's power when some enormous and powerful, not to mention evil, presence had produced an overwhelming feeling of terror within her, more so than Cinder could ever hope to match. She'd tried to ignore it, to let it go away, but it didn't. In her haste to avoid it, she rushed her attack on the boy, and almost killed him. Hell, she hadn't even noticed that he wasn't protecting himself with his Aura until she stabbed him.

"Oh, I see. And why should I believe that? Our little Neopolitan didn't have an issue with this 'something'."

"But-"

"If you screw up this badly _ever_ again, I will personally kill you. Understand?"

Emerald held back a gulp of fear, and nodded. Cinder smirked at the fear she was putting into her subordinate. Perhaps, she thought, they could use this to their advantage.

* * *

A doctor called for her, "Ms. Mikeham?"

Melissa groggily opened her eyes, rubbing them to help clear her vision of all the spots. She wasn't sure how she'd been able to fall asleep waiting for Naruto to be fixed up, especially not since he was brought in around nine. By now, as she could tell from the windows, it was night time.

"Wha? Whozair?" In her groggy, half-awake state, Melissa's words came out a bit slurred. She felt someone shake her on her left.

"Melissa, wake up. They're telling us we can visit Naruto."

Melissa shook her head, and looked over to see Blake sitting next to her, with Ruby right across from them, cradling her scythe with a distraught look on her face. Chances were, she hadn't been prepared for the sight of Naruto earlier.

"We can go and see Naruto?" Melissa questioned the doctor. He nodded.

"Yes. He woke up not long after we removed the bullet from his ribcage."

Melissa, Ruby, and Blake all stood, and made their way into the warded off section of the hospital. They were directed down the hall to Naruto's room, where they found him looking up at the ceiling with a bored look on his face. He turned towards them when they entered, and his face brightened a little.

"Oh, good. At least I can see you guys while I wait," he supposed sarcastically. Blake rolled her eyes, but Melissa and Ruby were too concerned with the blond to notice.

"Are you ok?" Blake asked after a moment. Naruto nodded.

"I've been fine for hours. I keep telling them: 'I don't need to stay here, I'm ok,' and all of those things. They don't listen, though. They keep saying I need to stay here for at least a little while, even with the wounds basically gone."

He pulled his hospital gown aside, showing them where his shoulder wound was, "I'm a fast healer, especially when I want to be. Uh… Aura, and all, ya know."

Blake and Melissa nodded, but Ruby could only stare at the faint white scratch that had been a wound piercing his jugular earlier. That it had healed so much, so quickly…

"Wow…" she breathed.

"You'd think they're used to this sort of thing, what with it being so close to Beacon," Naruto wondered. "I guess Beacon doesn't like when its students go to other hospitals?" Naruto stood up, getting out of the bed he was supposed to lie in. "Oh, well. I'm sure they won't mind if I just go for a walk. Hey, where's Yang? I want to make a joke."

As Ruby explained that Yang and Weiss had had to stay behind in case they were picked next for the doubles round, Naruto changed back into his jumpsuit and haori, back facing them. Ruby and Melissa had instantly looked away, blushing, when he was clad in practically nothing at all. Blake had followed suit after she realized that the other two had turned.

"Ah, that's better," Naruto remarked, stretching. A doctor entered, looking down at a clipboard. When he looked up, he almost panicked. That is, until he saw the sheepishly grinning blond in the corner. Then, he seemed torn between being angry, upset, and concerned.

"Mr. Uzumaki, we need you to stay in bed. You will need rest after that injury."

"Ah, I feel fine. You're just overreacting, old man."

Melissa could have sworn that the doctor's eye twitched a few times at the comment. Nevertheless, he sighed, and began mumbling to himself as he walked out, "Beacon students, always healing themselves with Aura… Well, I'll-" was all that Melissa heard before the door closed.

"So… are you gonna just try and leave?" Blake asked, seeming to be holding back a laugh. As if it was the most obvious thing in the world, Naruto nodded. The thing about having a hospital right next to Beacon was, you commonly would have people come in who could use their Aura or 'Aura' to heal themselves. This made it a pain originally, because people would be admitted into ICU for a day, like Naruto was, before being able to calmly walk out, like Naruto was going to.

Eventually, hospitals wizened up, and added it into their policy that if the patient could leave the building on their own, they were free to go. However, those who tried did have to either be a huntsman, huntress, or in training. Otherwise, regular people who believed themselves to be 'fine' would try and walk out all day long, and just make more work for the hospital. It was one of the rare occasions where a business didn't want as much business as it could get.

Regardless, Naruto was, in fact, able to simply walk out, with no negative repercussions. Gotta love policy.

"Man, how long was I out?" Naruto asked, staring up at the night sky.

"A little over fourteen hours," Blake answered. Naruto frowned.

"Did Weiss and Yang fight yet?"

Blake shrugged, "We don't know. We've been hoping you would be ok. I guess none of us thought you would have enough Aura to heal yourself so soon."

"Well, what are doing waiting around for? We could be missing their fight!"

Melissa giggled at his excitement, "Somehow I doubt that, Naruto. It's… what? One in the morning?" Blake nodded.

"Ya wanna race back?" Ruby asked Naruto excitedly. Melissa shook her head.

"Ruby, he's in no condition-"

"Yeah, sure. Let's go, Ruby."

Melissa tried to stop them, "No, wai-"

Too late. They had both taken off faster than speeding bullets the instant Naruto had said the smaller girl's name. All Melissa could tell to wait was the wind left behind. Although, she had the feeling that wind would probably listen more than those two.

* * *

Much like his teammates and the two of Team RWBY next to him, Naruto was cheering for Weiss and Yang as they fought their opponents. The two they were fighting seemed an odd bunch, between the guy using a trumpet as a weapon, and the Faunus girl roller-skating around the arena while Yang tried to beat the hell out of her. Apparently, she excelled at pissing Yang off, given the red eyes the blonde was sporting.

Yang was stood in the middle of the arena, with her foe circling her, while Weiss lay near-defeated as a result of Flynt, the guy with the trumpet, both of them in the lava fields. He smirked at Weiss, standing on her weapon, while he split himself into four again, ready to attack Yang with spooky sound waves. In a move that she probably hadn't thought through all the way, Weiss tackled Flynt into a fiery geyser, sacrificing herself for-

Oh, never mind; Flynt was fine. He was lowered to sixteen Aura, sure, but he was still standing. That is, until he and Neon, his teammate, continued their assault on Yang, which ended with Yang covering the end of his instrument. And in doing so, the sound waves coming from it were reflected back into Flynt, therefore ridding him of the last shred of Aura keeping him standing.

Soon after, Neon screwed up while roller-skating through the rocky portion of the arena, knocking her foot into an obstacle on the ground, which Yang took full advantage of, using her chance to beat the pesky opponent. In short, Yang won, everyone else lost. Ruby and Blake rushed out to celebrate the victory. Turned out, being burned alive was something people could easily shrug off, and Weiss was perfectly okay, just covered in ash.

With that being the last doubles fight, people began to file out of the arena, most of Team MDNT following them. Naruto waved goodbye to his team for the moment, hopping down to go congratulate Yang.

Later on, he found himself, along with Team RWBY, in an after-party of sorts. It was basically just all eight of them sitting at the rather reliable Simple Wok stand at the festival, talking and joking around about the tournament up to now. He wasn't sure where his team had gone off to.

"It's too bad you guys couldn't win," Yang was saying. "I really wanted to fight you, Whiskers."

"Yeah, I really don't know what happened. Hell, Ruby showed up in the forest, somehow."

"What? But I never left my seat."

"Yeah, I didn't think so. I couldn't even see whoever it was attacking me. I must have been seeing things, or something."

Yang lightly punched his arm, "Ah, don't worry about it, Whiskers. It could happen to anyone. 'Cept for me."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. We know; you're perfect."

"You know it," Yang joked.

"Hey, so are you going on to the finals?" Melissa asked Yang.

"Yep. I'ma win for Team RWBY!"

Blake, just now finishing the savoring of her precious tuna, jumped in, "She just wanted to keep fighting, so Weiss let her."

"That's not true! Ruby let me."

"Eh, it was mostly Weiss," Ruby objected.

"You'd better win, Yang," Naruto added. "Oh, and if you fight Emerald or Mercury… give 'em one from me."

"Feeling a little sour, eh Whiskers?" Yang joked, nudging his side.

"Just a little," he admitted, shrugging.

"You don't hate them for that, do you Naruto?" Ruby asked.

He ruffled her hair, "Nah. I don't hate them for that. It was an accident."

Besides, he had a different reason to be careful around them. Of course, Ruby didn't need to know that. She beamed, "Oh, good. I was worried two of my friends would hate each other." She glanced towards Weiss and Blake. "Again," She added on as a joke. Weiss just raised an eyebrow, while Blake basked in the aftertaste of the tuna, ignoring her leader.

* * *

Later on, once night fell and the third round would begin, all eight of the combatants were lined up in the middle of the arena. Amongst them were Yang, Mercury, Sun, Ruby's friend Penny, and Pyrrha, who for some reason Naruto didn't get, was looking down nervously, rubbing her arm. Port boomed through the speakers, "Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for! The one-on-one finals! Barty, why don't you explain the rules?"

Oobleck took over, "Ah, it's quite simple, Peter. Instead of a bracket system, each round of the finals will be randomly determined immediately before the match takes place!"

Port added, "Much like any good hunt, there will be zero time to prepare!"

Oobleck finished, "Ah, yes, yes! Now, let's see who our first match will be!"

Far above the arena, the faces began spinning on either side of the VS in the middle. Everyone watched closely, the tension mounting fast. Finally, it stopped on two familiar faces.

"Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black!"

Naruto covered his ears as Ruby cupped her hands, yelling out to her sister, "Break a leg, sis!"

"Would all other combatants please leave the stage?"

Besides Yang and Mercury, the fighters all walked off the arena, the outside edges pulled away, leaving only the center for the two to battle on. All around the Coliseum, the brilliant spotlights lit up, shining brightly on the center, on the two fighters getting ready for the first fight of the final round.

Yang grinned over at her 'friend,' "You better not go easy on me."

Mercury laughed somewhat evilly, "You wish."

* * *

 **Ah, cliffhangers. Such a wonderful creation.**

 **Until Chapter 17!**


	17. Chapter 17: The Catalyst

**Sorry, sorry. Missed the update yesterday.**

 **Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Naruto. Or. RWBY.**

* * *

Chapter 17: The Catalyst

Naruto watched as Yang and Mercury slowly walked up to one another, slowly raising their hands in preparation for the beginning of the fight. Port counted down dramatically, pausing for a moment before he yelled, "Begin!"

Instantly, Yang punched, connecting with a spinning kick from Mercury, sending out a shockwave from the power behind each of the attacks. Each of the fighters was knocked back a few feet, taking only a moment to recover, before Mercury ran at Yang, trying another kick. This time, Yang jumped over him, turning in midair so that she would face him when she landed.

When she did, punched immediately, firing at Mercury with her gauntlets. He spun around the bullet, then blocked her backhanded punch with his arm. When she tried again beneath, he did the same thing. He swept sideways with his arm, which she ducked under. She punched him in the chest, and at the same time, he kicked hers. Each of them had fired at the same time, thus sending their opponent flying backwards.

Yang recovered quickly, pressing off the ground with her hands, and setting herself upright. Mercury, on the other hand, shot his boots off at the ground, flipping back through the air, landing in a crouch, smirking. Yang began a barrage using her gauntlets, firing over and over again at Mercury. He zigzagged through the attacks, launching himself through the air at the blonde, bringing his foot down, only to meet her crossed arms.

She sent his foot high above his head, trying to sweep his other foot out from under him at the same time. He jumped over the attack, twisting in midair and landing in another crouch, dodging another bullet from Yang's gauntlets. He kicked upwards, backflipping in the process of kicking Yang in the chin.

Yang managed to land on her feet, and used her gauntlets to launch herself forwards at Mercury. She landed her first punch, adding on to the attack with the shotguns in her gauntlets. Her next punch was deflected to the side by his arm, while he ducked under the third. The fourth and final punch landed dead center on his chest.

Both of them spun, blocking the other's kick with their own. Mercury recovered quicker, moving his foot to kick the leg Yang was standing on, knocking her off of it. She hit the ground rolling, avoiding his slamming his heel into the spot she just was. Yang tried to punch downwards into it, only for him to perform some strange dance move to avoid it.

In quick succession, once he hit the ground again, he kicked with his right foot towards Yang's left, which she blocked, while also using his left leg to kick into her center, breaking her guard. He spun back onto his feet, kicking in the process. Yang dodged underneath the rather high attack, only for him to bring it down with a powerful slam. She dodged once again, and he broke the stage where his foot hit.

He tried another kick, which she blocked. When he pulled his foot away, she tried a kick of her own. When he dodged, he attack high in a feint, bringing her guard up so his follow up to her center would be unblocked. She just barely managed to dodge, but his attack flowed into his next, in which he jumped and kicked directly at her neck. She barely managed to block, and even so was sent back a few feet in a stumble. Mercury wound up in another crouch, before rushing at her.

He kicked again, with Yang blocking it with her gauntlet, uppercutting him immediately afterwards. Before he could recover, she slammed her elbow into his abdomen, punching him and firing with her gauntlet at the same time. The result was Mercury ending up on his stomach a foot or two away, before he began a number of handsprings backwards to avoid the multiple explosions Yang's attacks were causing.

The final one caused him to flip over the edge, something that would disqualify him for being out of bounds. But, given how powerful guns were made on Remnant, all it took was firing his boots towards the ground to send him flying back up onto the stage. In another crouch, he landed in front of Yang, kicking her foot away when she raised it to attack.

He kicked her in her left, then her right, then her left again, alternating his feet each time, before aiming one at the side of her head. She held up her arm to block, being just able to do so. Not bringing his foot away, he kicked into her back, then brought his foot around, aiming for her face, which she ducked under. He brought same foot up to meet her punch, then did the same for her next punch. And the one after that.

He kicked at her leg, forcing her to step out of the way, while also trying to dodge when he brought his foot to her face again. She ducked under it, but Mercury jumped, aiming his next kick right into her chest before she could block. For the added power, he shot his boots into her, knocking her back several feet. To follow up, he flipped over, shooting at her with his boots.

She dodged by rolling to the right, not seeing the strange bullet fly into the air above the stage. She did, however, notice when Mercury smirked, spinning on his heel and firing in every direction, rapidly, creating a cloud of white bullets circling around the stage. She dodged past two that were barely even fired at her, rushing at Mercury. In the precious few seconds that she spent trying to close the distance between herself and him, he fired off several more shots, adding them to the swirl of death.

She finally got to him with a punch, which he dodged to the side of, trying to counter with his own failed punch. He brought his foot up in another blocked kick, bringing it down once again to break her guard. He tried to kick her into the air, but, somewhat ironically, she jumped into the air to avoid it. He wasted no time, jumping up and slamming his foot into her chest, sending her flying into the ground, with the hundreds of white bullets he had shot off before coming hurtling down, all at once, creating a rather sizeable explosion.

Mercury stood up cockily, brushing himself off as he sauntered away. Naruto noticed Ruby watching with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. As Mercury began to strut away, smirking, another explosion rocked the arena, flames pouring out from the epicenter. When they cleared, a glowing Yang could be clearly seen, glaring rather angrily at the boy she was fighting.

She slammed her fists together, her Aura flaring behind her, her eyes turning red, and letting the entire crowd feel the heat off of the fire around her. For the first time in the fight, Mercury looked visibly worried as Yang rushed towards him. The first punch, even though he blocked it, sent him skidding back. When she charged him again, he tried kicking twice, with her dodging the first and blocking the second.

The second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh punches were from alternating fists, each punching him across the chest, adding in the explosions from her gauntlets for added damage. It was the eighth punch that did him in, though, when what looked to Naruto like a spider web of grey lines appeared all over Mercury, spreading from the point of impact from the punch. And the ninth punch, across his face, was really just insult to injury.

He bounced along the ground for several feet, defeated, as could be seen from his zero Aura compared to Yang's sixteen. Port came over the loudspeakers, "What a way to kick off the finals!"

Oobleck added, "Yang Xiao Long wins!"

Next to Naruto, and hell, including Naruto, celebrated enthusiastically, with Blake standing and clapping, Weiss trying to prevent herself from jumping up and cheering, and Ruby throwing her arms into the air out of joy. As for Naruto himself… well, he had practice being obnoxiously loud when he was a kid, and those lessons hadn't exactly faded with time.

Yang wiped her brow with relief, and began to walk past Mercury, turning as soon as she had. Then, while all of her friends were still congratulating her on her victory from the stands, she reeled her fist back, and punched right into the defenseless boy's leg, producing a horrible shattering noise that could be heard all throughout the Coliseum, presumably breaking it terribly.

Instantly, the entire Coliseum went silent for several seconds, until a huge portion of people began to boo at the action, while armed soldiers actually ran out to confront Yang, surrounding her when she seemed to threaten him further. All even Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Naruto could do was stare, as this girl they had known for so long acted so… violently.

For whatever reason, Yang had the audacity to look confused and concerned while people were scornfully yelling down at her. She even looked over to where Naruto and her team were, seemingly for sympathy. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake could only look horrified, while Naruto tried his best to look disapprovingly at her. Ruthlessness wasn't something he was a fan of, by any means. Even if he was a potential threat. He was fairly certain he just ended up looking confused, though.

Emerald ran out to Mercury, while two medics ran over with a stretcher, setting it down next to him. They moved him on to it, and carried him out, with his green-haired teammate following all the while. Yang stared, mouth half open, acting confused about the entire thing. Naruto may have seen Ruby in the forest, but he hadn't tried to kill her for whatever she was doing. And yet, Yang had broken his leg like he had attacked her or something.

Naruto left the arena with a distressed Ruby, a confused Weiss, and Blake, who seemed torn between something like fright and pensive thought. He himself felt disapproving. Yang hadn't needed to do that. He was just kneeling, and had even given her the equivalent of a "good game" after she turned. And the instant afterwards…

Whatever her reasons, they couldn't be good.

* * *

Naruto left the RWB in Team RWBY, feeling that they should talk to Yang alone first. He went to find his own team, and thus headed for the fairgrounds. They had foregone the first finals fight to look around, saying they would watch from wherever they had dinner. He was able to find them at a Jade Orchard, enjoying the wonderful breadsticks that they offered. Right, so Diana had chosen where they ate.

As soon as she saw him, Melissa rushed over to Naruto, worried, "What happened?! We saw the fight."

Naruto shook his head, "Yang… I don't know why, but she decided to break his leg after she beat him."

As they talked, they walked back over to the table where Diana and Troy still were. Melissa frowned, "But she doesn't do stuff like that. What came over her? He even looked like he was being a good sport, for God's sake!"

Troy decided to speak up, "Maybe she's just a little more bloodthirsty than we thought. I mean, there's no way she would tell someone if she was, so it makes sense."

Melissa shook her head, "But she's not like that! She just can't be!"

Troy shrugged in response, "Like she told _you_ everything about herself?" He emphasized the 'you' incredibly, almost condescendingly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Melissa shot back.

Troy rolled his eyes, "Its means, leader, that just because you talked to her a lot over the last month doesn't make you two best friends or something. It means that she kept her cruel nature under wraps up until now, and she couldn't help herself."

Naruto glared at him in disbelief, "No, that's not it. Melissa's gotta be right, and there's some reasonable explanation. I don't think what Yang did was right either, but calling her cruel is uncalled for."

Troy shrugged again, but didn't say anything. Melissa almost seemed on the verge of tears, and Diana was silently eating her breadsticks, not even smiling. Naruto felt a sudden pang of anger, probably directed at the blonde bruiser, for causing his team this much frustration and pain. He banished the emotion quickly, figuring it wouldn't do him any good to be angry. He needed to hear her side of the story first. Maybe it would make more sense then.

* * *

The next morning, Ironwood was pacing back and forth, staying silent for several rather tense moments. Eventually, he spoke up again, "I'm sorry, but you've left us with no choice.

Yang protested, "But he attacked me!"

Ironwood didn't bother looking over at her as he replied, "Video footage and millions of viewers say otherwise."

"But Yang would never do that!" Weiss argued.

Ruby stood up to agree, "Yeah!"

Ironwood sighed, "You all seem like good students, and the staff here at Beacon are fully aware that you would never lash out the way you did... under normal circumstances." He paused, waiting for a moment. "What I believe and hope this to be is nothing more than the result of stress and adrenaline. When you're out on the battlefield, your judgment can become clouded in an instant. Sometimes you see things that simply aren't there. Even after the fight is past..."

Yang tried to argue again, "But I wasn't-"

Ironwood shouted, "That's ENOUGH!" He gave a moment for the room to quiet, before continuing, "The sad truth is, whether it was an accident or an assault, it doesn't matter. The world saw you attack an innocent student. They've already drawn their own conclusions. And it's my job to inform you that: you are disqualified."

Yang looked down in despondent understanding while Ironwood walked out, only looking up again when the door closed, "You guys believe me, right?"

"Duh!" Ruby immediately let out. "Naruto would, too, if he was here!"

Weiss shook her head, "You're hotheaded, but not ruthless."

Yang looked over to Blake, the cat Faunus having not spoken, "Blake?"

Blake turned away. She was sure her teammates were glaring at her, but she was lost in thought. She eventually spoke up, "I want to believe you..."

"Huh!?" Ruby yelled in disbelief.

Weiss crossed her arms, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Blake?" Yang asked in a hurt voice.

"How can you say something like that?" Weiss objected. "Yang would never lie to us!"

"I had someone very dear to me change. It wasn't in an instant, it was gradual, little choices that began to pile up. He told me not to worry. At first, they were accidents, then it was self-defense. Before long, even I began to think he was right," Blake looked down. "This is all just... very familiar." She paused again, looking back up at Yang. "But you're not him. And you've never done anything like this before. So, I want to trust you. I will trust you. But first, I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me that he attacked you. I need you to promise me that you regret having to do what you did."

"I saw him attack me, so I attacked back."

"Okay. Thank you." Blake smiled slightly. God, Naruto was better at this then she was. Where was he, anyways? If he forgave his best friend for stabbing him through the chest with said friend's hand, then he would probably forgive Yang for acting in delusional self-defense.

"I think I'm gonna rest up," Yang said, looking down wearily. "Uh… send Naruto when you see him. I wanna ask him something."

"I'll be sure to do that," Blake obeyed. What she could possibly want to ask him, Blake had no idea. But hey, Naruto was pretty good at the whole 'cheering up' thing, somehow.

The three non-blonde members of Team RWBY awkwardly walked out, Ruby closing the door behind them. Blake spoke first, "I'm gonna go find Naruto. She wanted to talk to him."

"Yeah, I'll come with you," Ruby said dejectedly. "He said he was gonna spend today with his team. I think they're at the fair."

Team JNPR chose now to poke their heads out their dorm room. Jaune questioned, "Is… she gonna be alright?"

Blake and Ruby walked away, leaving Weiss to answer.

* * *

"I don't know… is it a whale?" Naruto asked. Diana shook her head, her characteristic smile back on her face. Troy had suggested they play twenty questions, a game that had supposedly always cheered him up, since it was hilarious to watch people try and fail to guess what bizarre thing you came up with.

Melissa cut in, her mood also drastically improved, "A skyscraper?" Diana gave a thumbs up, indicating that was the right answer.

"You got it!" Diana congratulated. Melissa did a little sitting-dance, looking rather odd.

"Right… I got it!"

"Is it an animal?" Naruto asked. Before Melissa could answer, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Ruby and Blake standing behind him, the former smiling sadly.

Blake spoke first, "Yang wanted to ask you something. But, uh… well, it's not a great idea for her to go walking around right now."

Naruto frowned, suddenly concerned for his friend. But first, "Did she tell you guys why she attacked him?"

Ruby looked away, "She said that he attacked her, so she defended herself."

"Hm… Alright. I'll go see what she wants, then."

"You… um… you believe her, right Naruto?" Ruby asked nervously. He smiled warmly.

"Of course I do, Ruby."

Naruto began to make his way back to the dorms, followed by Blake. He raised his eyebrow at her in mild curiosity, "You're coming?"

"Well, Ruby's gonna hang around Amity Coliseum until the fight tonight, but I really don't want to keep just watching fighting anymore."

"So you decided to come with me?"

"I'll wait outside until you're done talking with Yang. I… I just don't get the situation."

"Any ideas of your own why she attacked him?"

"None that I want to share. It all just seems so familiar…" She looked down. Naruto put his hand on her shoulder for reassurance.

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about. I'm sure she just got a little nervous, even after she won."

"That's what the general said, but I can't see Yang being so scared that she would punch hard enough to break his leg like that. And Naruto, this is the second time something like this happened this tournament," Blake poked his shoulder for emphasis. "Remember what happened to you?"

Naruto shrugged, "Yeah, but we were actually fighting then. Besides, I healed pretty quickly."

"Thank God for that. I was worried you had died," Blake held him protectively, as if to keep Death away from him. "Then they took you out on the stretcher… It was such a horrible sight."

"Huh. Isn't it a little odd how Mercury was taken all the way back to Haven for a simple broken leg?" Naruto questioned, looking in some diagonal direction thoughtful.

"Oh, um… yeah, a little, I guess. But, he has family that's probably worried about him. Ya know, like a mom?"

They were getting close to the dorm building. Such a shame that the mood was so dreary, as it was actually a wonderful day. There wasn't single cloud in sight, besides that one that was being ignored to be able to call it a perfect day. Yes, truly a perfect day. And yet, the mood made the weather seem as a mockery.

"Right, I'll just… wait here, I guess," Blake stopped outside her dorm room, gesturing for Naruto to enter. He did, and found Yang sitting upright in her bed, neutrally staring at the door.

"Hey, Naruto," she sighed. "Did Ruby send you?"

Naruto gave a small laugh, trying to lighten the mood, "Yeah, her and Blake." He sat down on the bed opposite to hers. "They said you wanted to ask me something?"

"Yeah. Naruto, when you were in the forest, didn't you say Ruby was there?"

"Uh- yeah, I did. She wasn't acting like it was weird, either. She wasn't even really acting like herself at all."

"Did you think you were seeing things?"

"Not really. Not until afterwards, when Ruby was telling me that she never left her seat."

"Oh, ok. Thanks, Naruto."

"That's all?"

Yang nodded. He got up, and backed over to the door, opening it behind himself, "See ya, Yang."

He closed the door behind him as he left, sighing to himself. Blake tapped him on the shoulder, "Is she alright? What did she want?"

"Yeah, she's fine. She just wanted to know what happened when I saw Ruby in the forest," Naruto answered. "So, do you wanna go do something?"

"I could go for some tea. Something relaxing, honestly."

"Gotcha."

* * *

As it turned out, there was a nice place at the fair that brewed tea, amongst other things. Naruto leaned back in his seat, looking up at the cloth roof above their table, while Blake enjoyed her sweet tea. Well, he wasn't really looking up at it, not with his eyes closed.

His eyes shot open suddenly, "I'm gonna go train."

Blake stifled a short chuckle, "Train? Why?"

"I don't wanna get rusty. Gotta stay in shape for the next tournament."

This time, she let a slight smile show, "See you later, then."

"See ya, Neko-chan."

Naruto got up, and began to head for the Emerald Forest. When he said train, he had meant his Rasenshuriken, mostly. He wanted to get it down to just his own two hands in Sage Mode. He could do the Rasengan with just one, so surely the Rasenshuriken couldn't be too far off, right?

He glanced over his shoulder before he jumped off Beacon Cliff, just checking if Blake had followed along. She hadn't, though perhaps that was a good thing. He had no idea what would happen if the Rasenshuriken exploded in his hands.

He hit the ground quickly, immediately sitting down and gathering nature energy. After a few moments, he stood, orange markings around his eyes. He held his hand out, forming a basic Rasengan. It came to him easily, especially with all the practice he'd gotten outside of Sage Mode. Then, just as a test, he began to try and funnel wind chakra into it. The shuriken blades had only just started to form when it all went to hell.

The Rasengan in the middle disappeared, but the shuriken blades expanded outwards, flying in random directions. As with when he would fail the Rasengan, Naruto felt scarring appear all up his arm at the same time as the explosion. And oh, what an explosion it was. By the time Naruto could see again, after the blinding flash, every tree within twenty feet of him was bent so much from the epicenter that they formed a bridge.

Naruto's eyes were as wide as saucers in surprise. "I guess I should be more careful." Perhaps two hands would be better. He formed another Rasengan, his arm having already healed, thanks to Sage Mode. He placed him other hand over top of it, adding wind chakra through the top, rotating through the bottom. He actually managed to keep it relatively steady, until the shuriken blades had gotten to the point they would be on a completed form.

Suddenly, the jutsu disappeared entirely, and Naruto ducked instantly. When he got up again, those same trees that had already been bent backwards were now cut to bits, along a level height. He glanced at his hand. Impressive power. Inwardly, he wondered what a Rasengan powered by other chakra natures would do. Unfortunately, he only knew how to use wind chakra. And he couldn't very well use dust, since he was fairly certain that Dust exploded the moment it came into contact with his chakra. Or, at least, shortly after it did.

Right now, he had other matters that he by no means needed to focus on. For one, perfecting his Rasengan outside of Sage Mode. For another, perfecting his Rasenshuriken in Sage Mode. He supposed that he could try killing two birds with one stone, by practicing his Rasengan. It would help him get the rotation down to being second-nature, which in turn would make it easier for him to add wind chakra while keeping the Rasengan steady.

Half an hour later, and he felt like he was just about at the point where he had it perfected. He finally had it to the size Ero-Sennin always did, but he couldn't hold it for more than five seconds. Now, he just needed to find out what kind of damage the Aura-based backlash would cause him.

But he wasn't one to focus on the negative. No, instead, he was practically jumping for joy at finally mastering the basic Rasengan. To him, it meant he was on par with Ero-Sennin at last. And now, he had a chance to surpass him, by perfecting the complete version of the Rasengan. Not even his dad had been able to add chakra nature to it, which meant Naruto could go even further. His home may have been gone, but he would make them proud nonetheless.

When he had finally calmed down, he remembered his idea for a Ōdama Rasengan surrounded by other Rasengans. The idea excited him further, but he was still a long way off from that. First things first: perfect the Rasenshuriken.

He entered Sage Mode after a few seconds of gathering energy, immediately forming the Rasengan. He kept his palm just above it, carefully funneling both wind and Sage chakra into it. He was hopeful that the wind chakra would keep it stable. It certainly seemed to help, as he was able to hold the fully-formed Rasenshuriken for a few seconds before it fizzled out of existence.

He shook his right arm, getting feeling back into it after all the effects of chakra overuse set in. It brought him back to when he was first learning how to make a Rasengan. He laid back against a tree on the edge of his new clearing, relaxing and looking up at the cloudless sky. He used his Sage Mode to look around at various Auras, not looking for anything in particular.

Something about the fact that he could do this relaxed him. Perhaps it wasn't so much that he could sense people over a far distance, but rather that he could feel the overwhelming force of Mother Nature at his back in Sage Mode, waiting to back him up.

His relaxation was interrupted, however, when he felt someone above him jump off the cliff. He smiled to himself, eyes still closed, as Blake landed in front of him, in the middle of the earthen clearing. She looked around for a moment, but it wasn't terrifically hard to find an orange-and-red object in the sea of green the forest provided.

"Hey, Blake," he called over, opening his once-again blue eyes to watch her walk over. She had a very Blakelike smirk on her face as she lay down next to him.

"Hey, Naruto. This doesn't look like training," she replied. He rolled his eyes.

"I _was_ training. I just needed a short brake, to let my arm rest."

"Oh, your arm's tired, huh?" she joked. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Since when did you become Yang? I thought those kinds of jokes were owned by her, under penalty of death."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't tell her, right?" Blake said with a grin.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head, "No, I guess I wouldn't.

"What kind of training were you doing?"

"I finally mastered the Rasengan!" Naruto let out excitedly, startling Blake a little from the volume.

"That's great," She responded with a smile. "Can I see?"

Naruto grinned, and stood up, stretching his arms dramatically. He held his hand out to Blake to help her up, then used his other hand to channel chakra once she was on her feet. The orb appeared, small at first, but rapidly expanding to full size. He thrust it into the tree they had just been leaning against, ripping into the bark for a few moments, before he released it and sent the tree flying. He turned back to Blake, who was staring wide-eyed. "Uh… yeah, it does that."

Blake shook her head a few times to refocus, as a roar sounded in the direction the tree had just been sent in. Several dozen Ursa could be seen charging them down through the woods, probably drawn by the tree trunk that had probably just hit one of them in the side of the head.

Naruto grinned sheepishly at Blake, "Well, I guess that's our cue to leave, huh?"

She rolled her eyes in amusement, "Yeah, I guess so."

Together, they both began to climb the cliff behind them. Blake leapt from vine to vine, scaling rather quickly. Naruto followed beneath her. Within a minute, they had reached the top, each one laughing about it, as if it had been some kind of hilarious joke.

Naruto lay back down, falling backwards with his hands behind his head. As he stared up at the slightly orange sky, he realized he had actually been training for much longer than he had thought. Hell, there was probably going to be another match soon. Although, given when Yang had fought Mercury, that wasn't likely. There were probably at least a few hours left.

"You wanna go see a movie or something?" Naruto casually asked, not really looking for an answer, just conversation. Blake sat down next to him.

"No, I want to go back and see what they have at the fair. Before I followed you, I saw Nora handing a giant stuffed bear to Ren."

Naruto turned to her with a look somewhere between disbelief and humor, "Really? Alright, let's go then."

* * *

There were, in fact, several kinds of games at the festival. One of them, the one where the player would slam a hammer into a button of some kind and rocket the bell to the top, seemed to be broken. So instead, Naruto and Blake started off throwing darts at balloons.

Unsurprisingly, Naruto was hitting every balloon he aimed at. Hey, when you can knock bullets out of the air, popping a balloon that was barely even two meters away was child's play. Blake missed just one time, and only because Naruto hit the balloon just before she did. Amazing how easy these games were when you were a trained warrior.

Secondly, with Naruto holding a large stuffed panda, they tried out the ring toss. Blake was silently laughing to herself as Naruto became increasingly frustrated at his inability to put a ring around a bottle. He kept glancing down at the ring, then at the bottles, then at the ring again before he tossed it, watching it like a fox the entire time it flew over to the bottles. Eventually, he just shook his head, walking away and leaving behind one very lucky and not entirely respectable carnival worker.

As he kept looking around for more things to do, Naruto looked down at the stuffed animal in his arms, then shrugged and began making his way towards Beacon. Blake caught up to him, asking, "Where are you going?"

"I wanna put this in my dorm, so that I don't lose it."

* * *

"Hey there, firecracker."

Yang didn't even turn around to look at her uncle, "Hey, Qrow."

Qrow stared her down, all business at the moment, "So, why'd you do it?"

Yang sighed to herself, "You know why."

Qrow smirked like he was getting ready for some joke, "All I know is that you attacked a helpless kid. So either you're lying or you're crazy."

Yang glared at him, "I'm not lying."

Qrow grunted, "Crazy, got it." He began to pace.

Yang looked down, "Who knows? Maybe I am." Hey, at least she knew Naruto was crazy too, right?

"And here I thought your dark-haired friend was the emo one."

Yang sighed again, "I saw my mom." She paused, looking over at Qrow's sudden stop and shocked reaction from the corner of her eye. "I-I was in a lot of trouble. Took a pretty hard hit. But when I came to, the person attacking me was gone. And I thought I saw… her. Her sword, like the one in you and dad's old picture."

Qrow laughed, "You're not crazy, Yang. That was your mom, all right. Let me guess - she didn't say a word, did she?"

Yang stared at him questioningly, "How did you know that?"

"I don't see my sister very often, but she does try to keep in touch. Whenever it suits her."

Yang shook her head, trying to clear away the confusion she could feel setting in, "Wait. You mean you talk to her? That was real?"

"Yeah, she found me. Had a tip from my most recent assignment and wanted me to give you a message."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

Qrow sighed as he strode over to the window, not looking at Yang, "I was tryin' to wait for the right time, and this sure ain't it. But I guess you deserve to know." He looked back at Yang, gravely solemn. "She wanted me to tell you that she saved you once, but you shouldn't expect that kindness again. Raven's got an interesting way of looking at the world that I don't particularly agree with. And she's dangerous. But you're a tough egg, kiddo. Shouldn't let this tournament thing get'cha down. You had a slip-up, sometimes bad things just happen. I say it's time you move on."

"Move on to what?" Yang asked, head almost cocked to the side.

Qrow leaned against the dresser, "Well... Raven let some info slip before she took off. If you ever wanna track her down, I think I might be able to help."

The look of determination he received was all the confirmation he needed. Though, now wasn't a great time. He could tell her after the Vytal Festival, even if it would drive her insane until then. It wouldn't do anyone any favors for his niece to go out looking now. Besides, he had another question.

"Your friend, Naruto. Where's he from?"

Yang's look of determination disappeared, replaced by one of confusion, "Huh? But I thought-"

"Where's he from?"

"Uh… he told me one time that he's from a village called… um… I think it was something like Koeknowhagakorray no Saatoh?" It was meant as an answer, but ended up as more of a question.

"Konohagakure no Sato?" Qrow asked incredulously, his eyes widening for a fraction of a second, so quickly Yang didn't even notice.

"Uh, yeah. How did you know that?"

"Just remembering some towns I've heard about," he lied. "Any idea where he said it was?"

"Um… no, not really. Ooh, uh- actually, he said it was far away from any of the Kingdoms," Yang answered, somewhat trying to get back to the topic of her mother's whereabouts.

"Alright, thanks," Qrow responded, distracted by something. "See ya later."

"But what about-"

Too late. Qrow was already gone, having leapt out the window like he wasn't patient enough to walk out calmly. Yang rolled her eyes, and laid back down. So, Qrow was going to help her find her mom? Perhaps she didn't need to be as broken up as Mercury's leg after all.

* * *

Even after everything that had happened in the last day or so, Ruby was still feeling pretty upbeat about everything else. So much so, in fact, that she was headed up to Amity Coliseum to watch the next fight. Inwardly, she was really hoping it would be Pyrrha, since she wanted to see Beacon win the tournament. She wasn't sure how Pyrrha fighting next would really help with that goal, but she wasn't questioning that at the moment.

She had back to the Coliseum, where people were back in the stands cheering and ready for entertainment. Ruby looked around for a seat, finding one near the edge. She climbed down the steps, feeling pretty cheery as she sat down. She glanced around the stands across from herself, and saw a face that definitely shouldn't have been there.

Ruby asked herself, "Emerald's here?"

As if she could tell the younger girl could see her, Emerald leaned forward to stare across at Ruby, who suddenly realized that there might be some kind of trouble, and ran towards the exit tunnel. She glanced behind herself, as if Emerald might have made it all the way across the arena in the time it took her to get to the maintenance door she found herself before. She barely thought twice as she walked through, making sure it closed behind her.

She herself couldn't explain why she felt so nervous, but she had the feeling that she should get either Yang or Naruto. It was like a feeling of being threatened, and she didn't like it. As she walked, she could hear Oobleck through the walls, "All right, it's now time to begin the randomization process for our next fight!"

She could just barely hear the sound of the randomization process, but she was set on ignoring it, and getting some kind of help. For what, she couldn't figure out, but she wasn't going to stop. That is, until a certain boy appeared from a side door, most certainly not injured, and most certainly not going home to his family.

Ruby squinted, as if she wasn't sure who she was seeing, "Mercury?"

Before Mercury could answer, Port's voice echoed through the walls, "looks like our first contender is... Penny Polendina from Atlas!"

Ruby turned back to her supposed friend, obviously distressed, "What are you doing?"

Port was once again the first to speak, "And her opponent will be... Pyrrha Nikos from Beacon!"

Ruby kept carefully watching Mercury, but it only took a few moments for her to realize what Port had just said. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, as she could do nothing to stop this, "No…"

Mercury mockingly put a hand to his chin, "Ooh, polarity versus metal. That could be bad." He gave a wicked grin.

Ruby glared at him, reaching around behind her back for Crescent Rose. But the Coliseum had rules against weaponry, to prevent sabotage. And thus, Ruby didn't have her precious scythe with her, and she felt vulnerable against the newly revealed enemy. "Mercury, what are you doing? You were hurt! Why-" She narrowed her eyes. "What's going on?" Mercury didn't answer. "Fine. If you're not going to tell me..." She tried to move around him, but he blocked her path, then did it again when she sidestepped.

Oobleck rang over the speakers, "Fighters, are you ready?"

"Three! Two! One! Begin!" Port bellowed.

Mercury smirked, "Showtime."

Ruby moved from side to side, trying to get around the grey-haired villain. He blocked her each time, until she dashed forward using her semblance in a panic. To her almighty surprise, he kicked her right in the abdomen, twisting around in midair and planting a heel in her that sent her flying backwards. When she landed on the ground, she pulled out her scroll, only for Mercury to shoot it to bits.

"Let's just keep this between us friends," he said menacingly. He rushed forward as she stood, kicking at her. She held up her arms to block, but she was nowhere near as skilled as her sister, and she ended up with a boot across her face. He kicked, firing off a round that she managed to duck under. He brought his foot down, but she dodged around it, using her Semblance to dash away from Mercury, who couldn't react this time, not with her having been right next to him.

* * *

"Three! Two! One! Begin!

Penny immediately pulled out her eight swords, looking rather dramatic as she did. She sent a volley of them at Pyrrha, only for the redhead to dodge or deflect them with her shield. The swords flew into the air behind her, until they turned around and came back to the fight.

Pyrrha, now having returned the shield to her back, twirled her javelin to block each sword swipe of Penny's, dropping her weapon when she needed to somersault away after being hit by a slash, only to magnetically return it to her hand as Penny readied another wave of blades.

Port decided to comment, "My word! What a tremendous display by Miss Polendina!"

Pyrrha rushed forward and jumped on an incoming sword using it as a springboard of sorts, swinging down at Penny, only to have the assault halted by a collection of blades. She leapt away from the retaliatory slice as Penny backed away as well. She tried to defend against the multitude of swords with the length of her weapon, but is forced back regardless. When she could, she rolled her shield off of her back with her Semblance. Penny began her assault anew.

Pyrrha spun wildly as she deflected or dodged each sword, until she gets close enough to Penny to deliver a few slashes with her spear, sending her flying back as Pyrrha knocked aside the blades called to their wielder's aid. Penny slid to a stop and made a new series of motions, the weapons folding up until she was circled by several laser rifles, a few of which open fire on the approaching redhead. Pyrrha avoided the blasts and fought off the remaining swords with her sword until she slid into position to charge at Penny and knock her back. Pyrrha straightened with a victorious grin that disappears into dizziness, just as she saw Penny rocketing forward, using her swords in much the same way as Yang or Ruby used their firearms, propelling herself forward.

After a short exchange, resulting in Pyrrha sliding backwards several feet along the ground, but recovering quickly, the redhead was taken by surprise when one of Penny's swords knocked away her shield, then her sword. She tried to pull her sword back to her with her Semblance, only for another sword to knock it away.

As Pyrrha watched, Penny pulled her all eight swords into the air above and behind her, only for them to double, then triple, then multiply even further to some astronomical number, all pointed towards the unfortunate redhead. But to everyone else, there were only eight swords, held in the same position. No one seemed to notice Pyrrha's dizziness at the number of weapons before her.

Penny sent them all forward, few in reality and hundreds strong in Pyrrha's mind. Pyrrha saw no other option but to step forward boldly, sending out a shockwave of magnetism to stop and even repel the blades. Eight blades are sent reeling back at Penny, who is also affected by the magnetism-based shockwave. Pyrrha opened her eyes wide, but with a brief moment to understand what was happening, what she had done, before Penny's arms are spread wide as she gasped, the wires attached to her own weapons curling around her left arm and midsection. Before the crowd of people thousands strong, with millions more watching all around the world, Penny Polendina was sliced into three separate pieces, each dropping to the ground.

There were four different kinds of panic. One was from the crowd, some looking away, averting their eyes from the horrible sight. Another was from Pyrrha, who could only stare in shock at what she had done. The third was from Ruby, who had gotten back out to the hallway from which she could've entered the arena, only to drop to her knees, tears in her eyes as she watched her friend die right before her eyes. The final was from Port and Oobleck, who were trying to stop the broadcast.

Oobleck held his hand to his ear, "Broadcast, what are you doing? Kill the feed!"

The broadcast operator responded in a panicked voice, "Something's wrong! We don't have control of the cameras! We can't even stop the broadcast!"

"What!? How is that possible!?" Behind the doctor and the professor, the live broadcast was overlaid with a red tint, and a black queen chess piece. The sound of a microphone being picked up echoed through the speakers.

A silken female voice rang out through the broadcast and through the speakers, "This was _not_ a tragedy. This was _not_ an accident."

* * *

 **I uploaded a new story just a bit ago. Just letting all of you know. "Remnants of Shinobi".**

 **Until Chapter 18!**


	18. Chapter 18: The Fall

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY, or any other odd work of literature.**

* * *

Chapter 18: The Fall

"This was _not_ a tragedy. This was _not_ an accident," said the mystery woman. "This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both."

In the crowd within the arena, General Ironwood stood, walking out with determination. The woman continued, "They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference. And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this? Not to mention what happened to the poor Faunus in the doubles. Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither.

Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the Tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves."

Even without being able to see the people who were listening to her, Cinder could practically feel the effect her words were having. She continued, "As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is... equally undesirable. Our Kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So I ask you: When the first shots are fired, who do you think you can trust?"

She smirked in a most evil way, before cutting off the broadcast entirely, going so far as to jam the system so no one could counter her words. It would leave them all in a panic, and the panic would bring the Grimm. And the Grimm would make it so much easier to find.

Oobleck turned to his colleague, "The feeds are all jammed! We can't get a message out!"

Port tried to get an answer from the broadcast operators, "Will somebody tell me what in the world is happening!?"

An automated warning began to sound all over Vale, " _Alert. Incoming Grimm attack. Threat level: Nine. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner."_

As the crowds began to flee in a panic, Ironwood entered the announcers' box and took hold the microphone between Port and Oobleck, "Ladies and gentlemen, please. There is no need for panic."

He had only barely released the words when a loud screeching drowned him out. On top of the Coliseum, only barely kept out by the energy shields over the arena. Even then, they couldn't keep it out forever. Ironwood felt his scroll go off as he and the two professors watched the Nevermore. He answered it, seeing it was Ozpin, "Ozpin, the girl, I-I can explain!"

Ozpin's voice was deathly serious, "You brought your army to my Kingdom, James." He paused, his voice sounded borderline furious when he spoke again. "Use it."

Though unnecessary, Ironwood sent the order to combat the Grimm that began to pour into the city by the hundreds. Unfortunately, one of the battleships above Vale wasn't doing terrifically, as its crew was torn apart by a small girl with an umbrella. Neopolitan had her characteristic smirk on as she threw open the door to a certain cell, holding a cane topped with a familiar hat.

Roman laughed, "Well, it's about time."

Though they were meant to be ready for anything, the Atlesian Fleet was not, in fact, ready for one of their own ships to begin firing on them. Thus, when the battleship identified as Blue Four took four shots from Blue Two, sending it careening downwards into Blue Three, sending both spiraling down towards the ground in a fiery ball of death. Unfortunately, they crashed into the ocean, minimizing the damage to the city. Roman laughed to himself, "Oo-ooh, it is good to be back!"

At the air docks of Beacon, numerous Bullheads were circling, finally stopping in dramatic formation. They all opened in sequence, the first revealing four members of the White Fang and a man in black and red, with a mask matching the ones the White Fang used. He called out as an order, "Bring them to their knees!"

The other Bullheads opened to reveal an assortment of Grimm, the largest being an Alpha Beowolf. The Grimm poured from the Bullheads, miraculously not attacking the pilots. Several were even brought up to Amity Coliseum, so as to attack the most civilians that they could.

Inside the Coliseum itself, Pyrrha was stunned, staring in shock at the android lying in pieces before her. Her team was unsuccessfully trying to snap her out of it. Jaune shouted out to her, "PYRRHA! Pyrrha, that thing's going to break in! You've gotta move!"

The Nevermore rose up, diving down into the shield. Jaune jumped over the railing, with Nora yelling after him, "Jaune!"

"Pyrrha, please snap out of it!" Jaune yelled, running for the redhead. The Nevermore completely broke through the holographic barrier, and the force of it landing on the arena floor knocked away both Jaune and Pyrrha. Nevermore screeched and lunged towards Pyrrha. At the same time, a red blur of rose petals slamming into the giant bird, sending it skidding backwards. Ruby landed in between the Grimm and Pyrrha, wielding one of Penny's swords.

Pyrrha stared in shock, "Ruby?"

"Leave her alone!" Ruby screamed at the bird. The Nevermore screeched, and rose up, circling around the arena. As it began to dive towards them, several lockers rocketed down onto it, pinning it into the ground. The lockers opened, revealing weaponry of a dozen students or so. Team ABRN, Team CFVY, Team SSSN, and several others, including Diana and Troy, climbed onto the bird, and pulled their respective weapons from the lockers. Almost as soon as they had, the Nevermore began to screech weakly once more, and reared up. All the students put their training to the test, leaping in various directions.

Ren ran up its back next to Troy, both slashing at its head. Troy threw Ren back at it, impaling its chin with one of his pistol-knives. Arslan Altan swung down, grabbed Yatsuhashi, and swung back up, with Sage and Diana following them into the air. Nora ran up the Nevermore, slamming her hammer down into it at the top, and firing her hammer for added effect. With its head pinned to the ground from the attack, Yatsuhashi, Sage, and Diana all came down, decapitating it in a most dramatic but still unnecessary way.

Pyrrha looked up at Ruby, misty-eyed, "Ruby, I... I'm so sorry."

Ruby agreed sadly, "Me too." Her face grew into a scowl. "But it wasn't your fault."

"She's right," Jaune agreed, walking over to Pyrrha with her sword and shield in his hands. "Whoever was on that microphone… they're the ones that did this. And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else."

She stood and took her weapons. But just as the mood was beginning to lighten just a little, a horrible screech reached the students' collective ears. A huge collection of Grimm lined the top of the arena, staring down. They resembled hippogriffs. Ren scowled, "Griffons."

Neptune looked around uncertainly, "Anybody got a plan of attack?"

Ruby called over, "Sun! I need your Scroll!"

Sun used his tail to flick his scroll to Ruby, who caught it easily and spun, pressing it and summoning her own locker to the arena. It landed and opened to reveal her scythe. As she ran over to it, a Griffon landed on top and screeched at her, before a gunshot impacted its side, scaring it off.

Port called over, "Students! I think it would be best for you to leave."

Ruby tried to argue, "But we can h-"

Oobleck cut her off, "Miss Rose. This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I'd prefer it if my students could live to tell about it."

Ruby nodded begrudgingly, calling out to the rest of the students, "Let's go!"

As the students ran off, Port and Oobleck stood back to back, watching the horde circle them. Port laughed manically, "One final match, Barty! Place your bets!"

* * *

Yang was scurrying around her room, trying to make sure she had everything she needed. She had her gauntlets on her wrists, she had her scroll in her pocket, and she was ready to go. She burst out of her door, meeting Naruto and Blake as they ran down the hall.

"Yang, c'mon!" Naruto shouted. She ran alongside them, all headed for the exit.

"Where were you guys?" Yang asked, looking sideways at them. Blake looked away for some odd reason.

"Uh- I was just putting a giant stuffed panda in my dorm room. I had gotten it at the fair," Naruto replied.

"Uh-huh… Hey, Blake! Your bow is crooked!" Yang teased. The Faunus's hand shot up to it, setting it straight atop her head. "Where's Ruby? She wasn't answering her scroll!"

As they left the dorm building, Naruto shrugged, "I don't know! She said she was gonna watch the fight tonight! She's probably up there!" he pointed up at Amity Coliseum. It was surrounded by Grimm, as well as Bullheads emblazoned with the White Fang's logo.

In fact, there must have been hundreds of Bullheads all around the school itself, as well. And whenever they opened, some kind of Grimm would jump out, and begin to attack everyone around it. A collection of Bullheads opened above them, and suddenly, Blake, Yang, and Naruto were surrounded by Beowolves. Naruto pulled out his chokutō, Blake pulled her katana off her back, and Yang extended her gauntlets. The three of them had just enough time to grin to each other, in spite of themselves, before the Grimm attacked.

Blake ducked under the first swipe, and stabbed into the bottom of the Beowolf's head. Yang grabbed another Beowolf's arm as it slashed at her, and flipped it over her head onto Naruto's chokutō. He cut through the rest of it, pulling his blade out of its head, and bringing it down into another's. Blake shot into it, and Naruto pulled his sword out of it by pushing into it with his foot. Three Grimm down in less than two seconds. Naruto grabbed onto one as it swung at him, using its arm to propel himself onto its shoulders. Before Blake stabbed it, he shot at three others, then decapitated one that Yang threw to him. Needless to say, the Grimm didn't last long.

"The White Fang is here?" Blake asked them, questioning the obvious. "Where's Weiss?"

As if the universe was conspiring to answer her question, Yang's scroll went off. When she answered, it was Weiss, "Where are you? Ruby's not answering her scroll!"

"We're by the docks! Ruby's up in the Coliseum! Where are you?" Yang questioned.

"I'm at the fair with Melissa."

Yang growled, thinking of all the people that were probably being attacked down at the fair, "Alright… you guys help everyone down there. We'll help people evacuate from here."

"Everyone down here ran off. We're coming to you guys now. Who's there with you?"

"Blake and Naruto."

"Alright. We'll be there qui- MELISSA, LOOK OUT!"

The call shut off suddenly, and Yang was left staring at her scroll. She turned to Blake and Naruto, "You two head to the docks. I'm gonna go catch up with them." The two Faunus nodded, then rushed off to the docks, where a crowd of people was already forming, trying to escape, even with Grimm and huntsmen fighting all around them.

* * *

Back up in Amity Coliseum, Ironwood was overseeing the evacuation. The White Fang was even bringing Grimm up here, but the android soldiers stationed around the Coliseum were able to handle most of them. However, they were ill equipped to deal with an Alpha Beowolf, one of which had just been dropped in by the White Fang. His fleet wasn't doing its job, and that needed to be fixed. But first, the Alpha needed to be killed. He stared it down for a few moments, before he and it charged towards each other, each one roaring some kind of battle cry.

As it jumped at hm, he slid under it, pulling out his pistol and firing up at it. The bullets did little do it, due to its armor. He wound up in a crouch, and began to fire at it again when it charged once more. It slashed at him with its right arm, which he ducked under. When it tried again with its left, he simply held up his right arm to stop it in its tracks. He shot beneath its feet, creating an explosion that set it off balance. In its moment of weakness, he pulled it over his head and slammed it into the ground, then pulled it up so its head was right over his gun's barrel. He fired, and fast-dissolving blood splattered across the surroundings.

As he was about to board his ship to go and take back his fleet, a group of students ran up. Ruby asked, "What's going on?"

"Grimm are crawling all over the city. The White Fang's invaded Beacon, and to make matters worse, some vagabond has seized one of my ships. Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control. So I'm-" He was cut off by a Creep leaping up behind the students. He shot it once, killing it to death. "-Going to take it back."

The general turned to board his ship when Jaune queried, "What should we do?"

Ironwood turned back to them, "You have two choices. Defend your Kingdom and your school... or save yourselves. No one will fault you if you leave." He walked up onto his ship, ordering his androids, "Let's move out!"

As he left, the students turned to each other, with Sun eventually saying, "I mean… come on."

"We can take a ship to Beacon," Jaune suggested. He made his way towards another waiting airbus, with the rest of the students following him.

* * *

The defense of the Kingdom was riding heavily on the androids of the Atlesian military. So, of course, sabotaging these androids would certainly spell doom for Vale. Such was why it was a part of Cinder's plan to do so, by corrupting the programming of the androids so that they would target any non-Grimm target. This was accomplished when Neo gave Torchwick a scroll to place in the control console on the Atlesian battleship, releasing a virus into the system that would turn any automated systems to Cinder's purpose.

At the docks near Beacon, Naruto and Blake were just killing the last of the Grimm seeking to slaughter all of the people attempting to flee. Luckily, there had been enough airships on standby that everybody had been evacuated safely. They heard a voice yell out, "NARUTO! BLAKE!" It was Melissa, running towards them with Weiss in tow. However, as they turned around, so did the Atlesian androids, with their faces glowing with a faint red. For reasons the two Faunus didn't understand, Melissa's eyes widened, and she fired three shots from her swiftly readied rifle, three shots that flew past them and destroyed the androids that had a moment earlier been aiming their guns directly at the backs of Blake and Naruto.

"That was a close one," Weiss said.

"Naruto!" Melissa yelled. "Where were you?! Troy and Diana went to see the fight, and I couldn't find you anywhere!"

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, while Blake turned back towards the school, seemingly observing the courtyard. There were more Grimm being dropped in, and the androids were evidently becoming an issue. "We don't have time for this now," Blake instructed. "We need to help fight these things."

"We need to-" Melissa was cut off when a collection of human soldiers were smacked aside by an autonomous Atlesian Paladin. At the same time, an Alpha Beowolf dropped out of a crashing Bullhead, and began to chase after a few straggler civilians.

"Melissa, Weiss, you go help with the Paladin! Blake and I will take out the Alpha!" Naruto yelled, as he and Blake broke off while running. Melissa sighed, and got out her rifle. She swapped it into its staff form, and leapt over the heads of the soldiers fighting the Paladin, making a nice dent where the staff hit. The mech didn't seem too bothered, however.

Naruto and Blake chased the Beowolf, eventually losing it near the dining hall. Naruto turned to Blake, "I'll look up high. You make sure it's not down here." Before she could say anything, he leapt up to the top of the building, going from column to column as he climbed.

Blake kept going, turning the corner near the back of the building. Before she could give chase, she heard a yell inside the building next to her, and glanced through one of the windows. Her eyes widened from shock and fear when she saw the man in black and red, Adam Taurus, her former partner, tossing a dead soldier away. "No…" She smirked as he saw her, and smirked. "Adam?"

"Hello, my darling," he taunted. She backed away slightly. "Running away again? Is this what you've become, my love? A coward?"

Blake yelled back at him, "Why are you doing this?"

"You and I were going to change the world, remember? We were destined to light the fires of revolution!" he shouted, as he prepared to stab an Atlas student. "Consider this… the spark."

Just before he stabbed downwards, just as Blake charged forwards, the roof above him broke open, with a dead and dissolving Alpha Beowolf falling through. Blake spoke her thoughts aloud as she said, "Right, Naruto!" Indeed, the familiar blond was stood on the falling and dissipating corpse of the Grimm, dropping down right next to Adam.

"Got the Beowolf!" Naruto said, standing up casually. He leapt backwards the instant Adam tried to slash at him. "Woah! Easy! Who are you?"

"His name is Adam Taurus," Blake answered. "He's one of the leaders in the White Fang-"

Adam cut her off, "And your former partner, my darling." At the last comment, Naruto cocked his head. He pointed from Adam to Blake, and back again.

"Him and you? Huh... Guess I know what I'm up against."

"Naruto, no. Let's run, now," Blake pleaded. Naruto looked at her, confused, but nodded anyways.

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not letting Blake escape again," Adam sneered. He charged forward, catching Naruto off guard slightly with his speed. He was clearly trained well, with skill that not many students, and especially not any first year, could match. Luckily, Naruto wasn't exactly new to fighting. In an instant, he'd held up his chokutō to block Adam's strike, and whipped a kunai out from his weapon pouch to counter. Adam aimed his sheath towards the kunai, and shot a bullet at it, knocking it away from Naruto.

Trying again, Naruto put his training to the test by forming a Rasengan in his left hand. Just before he thrust it into Adam's chest, the White Fang member slid back just enough to block the orb with his blade. To Naruto's overwhelming surprise, the technique was absorbed entirely, and not only Adam's blade, but also his hair and parts of his outfit began glowing a dangerous red. Blake's eyes shot open, "No! NARUTO!"

Adam smirked in an incredibly sadistic manner, before, he slashed out in front of him. Naruto had no idea what the move was going to do, but he really didn't want to. He jumped as hard as he could, even filling his legs with as much chakra as he could manage in the half-second he had. He slammed against the ceiling legs first, but at least he avoided the attack. Both of the Faunus beneath him looked around, confused, before Adam advanced on Blake.

Naruto dropped down between the two, holding his arms out protectively. Blake tugged at him, "Naruto, let's go!" Naruto nodded, not even turning away from this man in front of him. Then, with his speed, he grabbed Blake and took off, living to fight another day. Whatever else that man could do, it had seemed like he was going to turn all the power of the Rasengan back against Naruto, and the blond wanted a better way to deal with that then what he had now.

They stopped a little ways from the cafeteria, and Naruto set Blake down. "Thank you, Naruto. He's-"

Before she could continue, the ground rumbled. The shook so intensely that for a moment, Naruto thought that there was either a short earthquake or someone had crashed nearby. But it happened again a few moments later. And again. The entire world seemed to be shaking. Off in the far distance, an ear-splitting screech sounded, and an entire mountain top exploded. From out of the rubble and debris flew an enormous Grimm, one that looked reptilian to Naruto. Blake muttered next to him, "Is… is that a dragon?"

Naruto stared at it for a few more seconds, "We need to find the others! They're in the courtyard, I think!" Blake nodded, and the two Faunus ran back towards the docks, intent on regrouping.

* * *

Pyrrha stood with the rest of her team, ready to fight the Grimm and the Atlesian Knights attacking everyone. But then, she saw Ozpin standing expectantly near the steps into Beacon Tower, and her face fell. She ran off towards him, albeit begrudgingly. Nora asked behind her, "Where's she going?"

"I'll go find out," said Jaune. "You two stay here and keep fighting!" He ran after Pyrrha, leaving Ren and Nora to join the others in combatting the Grimm. Ozpin, Pyrrha, and Jaune didn't realize they were being watched from a nearby rooftop, however. Cinder followed them with her eyes, watching as they entered Beacon Tower. She smirked, and followed behind them.

* * *

Ruby had taken it upon herself to stop the rogue battleship. Thus was how she found herself atop an Atlesian battleship, watching in abject horror as the Dragon Grimm flew past her. She shook it out of her thoughts, remembering why she was up here. She began to run for the entrance, only for a Griffon to land in front of her. She pulled out her scythe, dashing past it as she slashed several times. She turned, firing her scythe once to reverse herself, and slashed across it again. It fell, dead, and dissolved to dust.

She heard the snap of a camera behind her, and turned to see the same girl from when she had fought Torchwick with her team and Naruto a few months ago. The girl, Neo, sent the image to Torchwick, who obviously was incredibly pleased at seeing the same girl who had foiled him so many times. He groaned to himself, "Oh, you can _not_ be serious!" He picked up his cane, and walked out the door, headed for the top of the ship.

Back atop the airship, Ruby tried an low swing, with Neo somersaulting over it, and ducking the next swing, before performing another backflip to dodge the third. Ruby twirled her scythe dramatically before attempting another low sweep, only for Neo to backflip away. Ruby spun her weapon, stabbing into the hull as she fired a shot, only for Neo to shatter in an illusion. As the shattered illusion faded, Torchwick was left as he fired a shot back with cane, sending Ruby flying several feet, before she lodged her scythe into the ship again to safely grip herself from the surrounding gales.

"Little Red, little Red, you are just determined to be the hero of Vale, aren'tcha?" Torchwick taunted.

"What are you doing!? Without these ships, the Grimm will destroy everything!"

"That's the plan!"

Ruby smacked aside his cane just as he attempted to fire it at her, stumbling him somewhat before Neo returned and leapt over him, kicking Ruby's left cheek, and using the momentum to flip her over and send Ruby tumbling on her back. Neo followed up with a roundhouse kick to the face, and then a rear horse kick that nearly sent her careening off the hull of the airship.

"But why!? What do you get out of it!?" Ruby asked.

"You're asking the wrong questions, Red! It's not what I have to gain, it's that I can't afford to lose!"

Ruby charged forwards, as Neo vaulted over Torchwick for a powerful kick. She leapt up, grabbing Ruby's scythe and sliding under, flipping Ruby once more with the hook of her parasol. As Ruby spun once more, Neo finished with a roundhouse to the abdomen, as Torchwick slammed the barrel of his cane to the ground and fired, causing the cane to ricochet and slam into Ruby, bouncing off so he could catch it and fire the weapon once more over his shoulder. The blast was enough to send Ruby flying off the top of the ship, before she stabbed into it with her scythe.

"I may be a gambling man, but even I know that there are some bets you just don't take."

Neo extended a blade from her umbrella and dragged it along the surface, holding it out towards Ruby, keeping her at swordpoint.

"Like it or not, the people that hired me are going to change the world! You can't stop 'em, I can't stop 'em!" As Torchwick continued, Ruby kicked away a Nevermore, noticing the button on Neo's parasol.

"You know the old saying, 'If you can't beat 'em-'" Suddenly, Ruby shot towards for the parasol, pressing the button swiftly, causing it to open and send Neo flying off the airship, leaving her with only a frightened gasp as she was silently left at the mercy of the Grimm roaming the skies and the raging winds. "NEO!"

Ruby climbed back aboard the ship, "I don't care what you say! We will stop them, and I will stop you! BET ON THAT!"

Ruby charged forward with the help of her Semblance, as Torchwick gripped his cane with both hands, firing once, the left hand holding the shaft, and quickly caught the projectile with the hook end and hurled it at Ruby in a wave, knocking her away, before smacking her with the business end of the cane, ramming the weapon in her stomach, and firing another shot, sending her on her back once more.

"You got spirit, Red. But this is the real world!" Torchwick beat Ruby with the butt of his cane, sending her back a few feet. "The real world is cold!" He slammed his cane down again, this time on Ruby's legs. "The real world doesn't care about spirit!" Ruby kicked him in the knee, causing him to lose balance as he prepared a downward strike. "You wanna be a hero!? Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history! He smacked Ruby with the butt end of the cane. "As for me, I'll do what I do best: lie, steal, cheat, and SURVI-"

Just as Torchwick was about to perform a final, overhead swing, a Griffon dropped from the sky and swallows him whole, likely attracted by the negativity of his rant. The force of it landing sent Ruby back a few feet, before the two charge at each other. Ruby prevailed as she dodged around the Grimm, letting it crash through the hull behind her. Unfortunately, it set off a chain reaction of explosions all over the ship. She saw her weapon, still impaled into the side of the ship, as said ship began to careen to the side. She ran for it, grabbing it as she leapt off the falling airship, and propelling herself out into the air. As she fell, she fired downwards multiple times, each time slowing herself down during her descent.

* * *

Naruto and Blake didn't take long to meet up with the fighting horde of students. The White Fang seemed to have a nearly endless supply of new Grimm to fight them. At present, there was not only a horde of Beowolves slowly overrunning the courtyard, courtesy of both the Fang and the Dragon, which seemed to be able spawn Grimm from drops of black liquid that fell from its wings, but also a number of Atlesian Knights. Hell, to even enter the courtyard, Blake and Naruto had to slice their way through a small army of each. When they reached the center, they helped to form a circle of students.

"Where did all of these come from?" Ren asked.

Blake answered, "The White Fang traps Grimm to use against humans! They must be releasing all of them here!"

"Wherever they're coming from, we need to kill them!" Melissa ordered. The students all shouted in agreement, before charging off. As suddenly as they started, they stopped, watching the Dragon fly right overhead.

Naruto shouted, "You guys keep going! I'll handle the Dragon!" According to Blake, it looked exactly like the dragons in storybooks on Remnant. She didn't get how he could have never seen one before. Not important at the moment, however. He sat down, gathering Natural Energy as quickly as he could. Very soon, he entered Sage Mode, and he stood up. With Sage Mode active, he didn't need his eyes to find the Grimm. Not that he would have anyways, giving how much it enjoyed the sound of itself screeching.

He leapt up onto one of the archways that was left standing, and created a clone, praying that no one would find it strange if they saw. He set out his hand, forming the Rasengan while his clone added the wind chakra. Miraculously, he was able to form the technique, and keep it steady. He lined it up, and hurled it right into the Grimm's path of flight. It hurtled at its incredibly speed, slamming right into the Dragon, and exploding on impact. Naruto smirked, knowing he had just killed it.

And then, with another loud screech, it flew out of the explosion, seemingly unharmed. It twisted in the air, sending droplets of black liquid everywhere around it, creating hundreds more Grimm. Blake climbed up next to him, "What just happened?!"

He couldn't answer, too stunned to process the question quickly. First, some guy absorbed his Rasengan, and now this? He shook himself out of the confusion and answered Blake, "It survived my Rasenshuriken! That shouldn't be possible!"

"Your what?"

"Never mind! Let's just worry about the Grimm and the androids. We can take down the Dragon once they're taken care of!" Naruto jumped down, still in Sage Mode, and gripped his chokutō tightly. In truth, he was actually a little scared of the giant Grimm. His Rasenshuriken was his strongest technique. If it couldn't even scratch the thing… Well, he didn't really want who could beat it. But for now, he would focus on things he _could_ beat.

He landed on an Ursa, stabbing down through its head and out its chin. He pulled his sword out, twisting it all the while, while he threw four shuriken into a Beowolf that was about to pounce on Weiss from behind. He leapt off of the dissolving bearlike Grimm, winding up in a crouch in the center of a circle of Atlesian Knights. He swung his blade around in a circle, slicing off all of their legs and rendering them immobile. As he stood up, he thrust a Rasengan into the ground, the small shockwave destroying the androids. That, and the fact that the battleship controlling them crashed, an event he didn't even notice.

Suddenly, his sensory skills alerted him to a huge amount of energy transferring, but he couldn't tell where for a second. Then, his eyes shot to Beacon Tower, where he felt both of the people using Natural Energy. One of them disappeared, the energy moving to the other person, and growing in size exponentially. By the time the transfer had completed, it felt as though the person had amassed enough nature energy to destroy a city. He felt his jaw drop slightly open for the second time that night, as he took off running towards the Tower. Blake yelled after him, "Naruto, where are you going?!"

"I'll be back!" As he ran, he felt his Sage chakra fade away, and felt himself exit Sage Mode. That would be an issue if he needed to fight this person using Natural Energy. With how much they now had… it was scary to think about what they could do. He stopped, spending just enough time standing still to reenter Sage Mode. When he did, he felt two people running towards him, and opened his eyes to see Jaune and Pyrrha fleeing the Tower. Beneath it, he felt Ozpin fighting the with nature energy stored up, but only for a moment. After that moment... it was hard to describe, but it was as if Ozpin teleported away. Naruto vaguely felt his presence leave, but it was so quick he couldn't quite track it.

The person began to fly upwards through what Naruto assumed were the elevator shafts in the Tower. He watched carefully, finally getting an identity for this person. When he did, he saw the woman that Kurama warned him about, Cinder, flying up the Tower at blazing speeds, heading straight for the top. While he focused on her, Pyrrha and Jaune also saw her flying up. He barely heard them when Pyrrha spoke, "There's no time. Go. Get to Vale and call for help."

Jaune frowned, "Huh? What are you gonna do?" Pyrrha turned, staring determinedly at the tower. "No... no, Pyrrha, you can't. You saw how powerful she is! Pyrrha, I won't let you do-"

Pyrrha grabbed Jaune's head and pulled him into a dramatic kiss, in a way that said, quite thoroughly, goodbye. She pulled away, tears threatening to fall, "I'm sorry." While Naruto hadn't really heard their conversation, he did hear when Pyrrha pushed Jaune into a locker, slamming it shut on him. She pressed several numbers into it, sending it flying off to Vale. As she turned back to the Tower, she felt a hand on her shoulder and nearly jumped out of her skin.

She turned to see Naruto, though he had odd markings around his horizontally slitted yellow eyes. That certainly distracted her for a moment, until he spoke, "Pyrrha, you don't want to try fighting her alone. She will kill you." Pyrrha seemed like she was going to argue, but Naruto cut her off. "Let's go fight her together."

Pyrrha grinned gratefully, as Naruto and she ran forwards. Naruto glanced at the walls, "Pyrrha, I'll meet you at the top!" Without any explanation, he jumped up, and began running up the wall, as if it was laid out flat along the ground. Pyrrha blinked, before running into the building and stepping onto the destroyed and groaning elevator. Using her Semblance, she sent it flying up the shaft.

* * *

She reached the roof quickly enough, even before Naruto did. As she forced the doors open with her Semblance, she also threw her spear towards Cinder, who lazily leaned her head to the side to avoid it. As she did, Pyrrha took notice of the Dragon outside, mounted to the building at present. She jumped forward with her shield a moment later, pressing her feet into it as it slammed into Cinder's raised arms. Right as Cinder pushed it away, Naruto broke through the window next to the Dragon, rolling in and winding up on his feet, chokutō held in his hands. And those weird orange markings were still around his eyes.

"Who are you?" he questioned her. She smirked.

"I could be any number of things. For one, I could be the one who shares this kind of power with you," she gestured to the Dragon, and produced a flame in her right hand. Naruto frowned.

"Huh. Haven't ever had someone try to team up with me before," Then he scowled at her. "No. I'm going to stop you from hurting my friends."

She narrowed her eyes, "Just think of what I'm offering you!" Naruto wasn't sure why she was so fixed on him, but he decided to give her a rather concrete answer.

Faster than sound, he rushed at her, forming a Rasengan in his hand just as he reached her. Cinder barely had a moment to register how fast he was before he thrust the Rasengan into her abdomen, letting go a moment later, sending her slamming against the glass behind her. "Does that answer your question?" he mocked.

"Yes… it does," she growled, standing slowly. "Die." She hovered into the air several feet atop a fire spout beneath her. She held her hands forward, and created a massive geyser of flame, directed at him. Pyrrha jumped in front of him, and his eyes widened. With that much fire, her shield would be melted in an instant, and she would burn. He kicked Pyrrha out of the way quickly, then formed a Rasengan in the next moment. He thrust it at the fire, trying to disperse it. Unfortunately, as he had thought, the fire was imbued with Natural Energy. It completely ignored his Rasengan, rushing past it as if it wasn't even there.

Luckily, Sage Mode was able to heal Naruto before any of the real pain set in, but he was still forming third degree burns all over his body constantly for about thirty seconds or so. Evidently, the woman wanted him burnt to nothing more than ashes.

Finally, the flames let up, and the last of the burns healed. Cinder was staring at him in disbelief. Amazingly, none of Naruto's clothing was terribly damaged, just like that time he had fought Sasuke, and the Uchiha had used his fire jutsu relentlessly. It was odd how that seemed to always happen.

He created two clones, and sent one forwards at Cinder. If she was surprised by the maneuver, she didn't show it, as she simply pulled her swords into existence, and rather quickly dispersed the clone. However, it gave Naruto and his other clone enough time to form a Rasenshuriken. Before the smoke from his destroyed clone had even clear, Naruto threw the shuriken straight at Cinder.

Only for the Dragon to break through the building, and absorb the entire blow. It exploded against the side of the beast, affecting as little as it seemed to have before. Naruto held onto the ground with chakra, being just out of the blast radius. When the Dragon had flown through, and the explosion had cleared, he looked around wildly, trying to find Pyrrha. Cinder was still where she had been before, smirking at him.

He saw a flash of red from behind the stack of gears laid out behind Cinder, just before every one of them shot towards her, covered in a black hue. Cinder seemed to be taken by surprise, the first one flipping over, slamming her into the ground as the other ones piled on top of it. Where the gears had just been, Pyrrha now stood, arm outstretched, breathing heavily. Naruto was about to congratulate her on the victory, but before he could, the pile of gears exploded outwards, one of them smashing into the unsuspecting blond shinobi.

He had no time to anchor himself to the spot with chakra, and so he went flying with the gear. By the time he was free of it, he was a little ways down the Tower, running back up as fast as he could. While he ran, he formed a Rasengan, not even noticing when the shuriken blades started to form. He took the last step, soaring into the air above the top of the Tower, and saw Pyrrha desperately trying to fend off Cinder without her weaponry, which seemed to have been lost in the earlier Rasenshuriken.

Instinctively, Naruto tried throwing what he thought was a Rasengan, and was shocked to find he had accidentally formed its completed form. The Rasenshuriken sailed downwards towards Cinder, stood several feet away from Pyrrha, holding a bow of some kind. Before she could fire the arrow, Cinder was forced backwards by the explosive technique, performing some kind of technique that created a shield of flames, guarding her from the blast and the shockwave.

Naruto landed on the roof, and rushed directly at Cinder, intent on ending this as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, he forgot one of his limitations. He could only form two Rasenshuriken before Sage Mode ran out. Because he was in the midst of battle, he barely noticed as the power left him. Instead, he was alerted to it when the exhaustion hit him. He couldn't even make it all the way to Cinder before he collapsed.

She smirked, "So, it seems you are _not_ as strong as you thought. What a shame…" She pulled out her bow again, aiming it at the slowly rising blond before her. She pulled back the arrow, releasing it after only a moment. To her surprise, he didn't try to dodge. Instead, he simply raised his hand to it, stopping it from reaching a vital area.

Naruto broke off the end of the arrow, then forced the rest out of his hand. He was about to try reentering Sage Mode when he noticed something different. His hand was healing, with a red glow to it. He grinned in spite of the situation. At least he knew he had support.

Cinder didn't seem to notice, however. Right after he had pulled the arrow out, she had flown several feet into the air, raising her arms to her sides, summoning a ring of flames around herself. He placed a hand forwards lazily, directing a thin, white-hot column of fire towards him. He rolled to the side, and the fire burned right through the roof. Even though he rolled to the side, he still felt the heat off the flame.

He shot at her with his pistol, only for her to vaporize the bullets when they got to her. She raised one of her hands to the heavens, and thrust it down, ending with it pointing at Naruto. Before Naruto could react, Pyrrha tackled him to side, helping him avoid the bolt of lightning that shot down. "I really don't think we can beat her, Naruto," Pyrrha muttered. Naruto was starting to agree, but they still had to try. Otherwise, she would probably kill everyone.

Naruto was trying to enter Sage Mode, but Cinder wasn't giving him a chance to stay still. There wasn't enough space up here to create an army of clones, and he couldn't use the Rasenshuriken outside of Sage Mode. Not without damaging himself. That only left him with the Rasengan and a few clones at a time. Pyrrha could no doubt help immensely, but Naruto was having doubts that they could beat this woman. She seemed to have a near infinite supply of fire, and apparently lightning as well.

Naruto stood, and rushed at Cinder once again. This time, he threw a hailstorm of kunai and shuriken at her, coming from all angles. He was hopeful that he might catch her off guard with one of them. No such luck, however. She produced a sphere of flames around herself, and burned all of the metal weaponry to ashes. Those flames were scarily hot. She opened the sphere from the front, with it sliding backwards into a crescent ring behind her.

She swung her arms around, sending it at him. He leapt upwards, only for it to follow him. Pyrrha threw her shield, using her Semblance to hold it against the flames. Because it was made of a much higher quality of metal than his kunai had, it lasted longer. That said… her shield broke after only a few moments, melting from the center outwards. The flames roared forth, but luckily died before they reach Naruto. Cinder point her finger at him, and shot a bolt of lightning. Using his sword, Naruto redirected the lightning into the Tower, dispersing it amongst the large metal structure.

Naruto dodged another bundle of flames, this time watching Cinder carefully. She brought her arm, bent at the elbow. Beneath him, he heard the sound of a scream, and rolled forwards, narrowly avoiding the explosion. Another scream sounded, and he barely had time to brace himself with a thin layer of chakra before he was sent spiraling through the air. He felt himself falling, and saw that he was dropping towards the ground, fast. He had nothing that he could use to slow, nor anything to latch onto with chakra, given that he was several meters from the Tower. So instead, he filled his body with chakra, preparing for a harsh collision.

When it came, he was lucky enough to at least avoid landing on his head. He landed back first, cratering the ground severely beneath him. He was able to stay conscious, with few broken bones, thanks to his chakra, but he could still feel pain all over. He closed his eyes, ignoring the pain and the already-mending bones, and took this chance to gather energy. Moments later, he was back in Sage Mode. As he got up, he could sense Pyrrha at the top of the tower, with Cinder standing only a few feet away. Ruby was almost at the top as well, though Naruto didn't know where she came from.

"Naruto?" came a voice behind him. It was Weiss. "How did you survive that?"

"Not now, Weiss," Naruto ran towards the building, fueling his jump with chakra. As a result, he ended up halfway up the building from just his jump. He began running up as fast as he could, not knowing what would happen. Close to the top, he passed by Ruby, rocketing up the tower much faster than anyone else could've.

In a moment, too much happened. Naruto reached the top, his speed propelling him into the air several feet. As he fell, he saw Pyrrha combatting Cinder. The older woman seemed to be toying with her. An arrow was shot through Pyrrha's heel just as Naruto hit the ground. Cinder nocked another arrow, not having noticed Naruto, and fired it straight into Pyrrha. Before she could finish of the redhead, who no doubt was going into shock, Naruto ground his fist into the side of Cinder's face, sending her across the rooftop from the unexpected blow. The woman stopped herself, glaring a multitude of pointy objects at Naruto, who reciprocated the glare tenfold.

"Do you want to die? I'm willing to oblige." Without another word, the woman nocked three arrows, firing all three within the blink of an eye. With his Sage Mode active, Naruto could feel as the arrows tore through the air, headed straight for him. He readied himself, placing his hands in front of himself in a defensive manner. When the missiles reached him, he sidestepped the first one, broke the second one with a palm strike, and caught the third out of the air.

But in the few precious moments he had spent tracking the arrows, the woman had not been idle. Even with Ruby, who had arrived on top of the tower just after Naruto had, trying to stop her, Cinder had still reached Pyrrha with her swords. She drew them across the redhead's neck, incinerating her body as she decapitated the warrior. Her head never even hit the ground. Ruby let out a blood-curdling scream, "PYRRHA!" It was all Naruto heard before a blinding light overtook everything, and he felt a great pain in his right side. Not even his Sage Mode could prepare him for it, as it seemed to well up from nowhere at all.

* * *

A moment later, or so it felt like, Naruto opened his eyes. As he did, a familiar sight fell before him. A sewer with water that just came up to his ankles, and a great iron gate. He stood, and walked over to the gate. Without a word, he stepped through the bars, looking around at the darkness.

" **What are you doing?"**

Naruto smiled, "I was trying to talk to you. I haven't been able to for a while, ya know."

" **Hmph. You're only in here because you were unconscious, brat. And you're starting to wake."**

"I'm starting to wake? What do you mean?"

" **That vixen with the silver eyes used some kind of power that would put even the Uchiha Clan's Amaterasu to shame."**

"Amaterasu? Never mind; what did Ruby do?"

" **It seems that even here, there are humans with powerful eyes. I'm unsure exactly what happened, but whatever she did certainly originated from her eyes."**

"What… what about Pyrrha?"

" **The redheaded vixen died, Kit. You saw it happen. This isn't the first time someone's died. Get over it."**

"Never mind," Naruto resisted lecturing the fox about his dismissiveness. "Where am I?"

" **It has only been about half of an hour, Kit. You're still in the same place as you were before. Every one of the humans and Faunus are searching for survivors at the moment."**

"Is Blake ok?"

" **Yes, the vixen is fine. She may simply be a little shaken from meeting this 'Adam' that she used to work with."**

"Right… I need to wake up now. Can you give me a hand, Kurama?"

The fox took a moment to respond, **"Fine."**

A moment later, Naruto found himself lying on the top of Beacon Tower, next to Ruby. It was still dark, meaning that no, it hadn't been long. Ruby was clutching her head unconsciously, most likely because she had been in pain when she passed out. He looked around, but couldn't see the woman anywhere. And Pyrrha… But also, the Dragon seemed to be frozen to the side of the building.

' _What happened to that woman?"_

" **I don't know. I can't sense her nearby, nor can I sense massive amounts of Natural Energy. I admittedly lost track of her after the vixen next to you used her power."**

Naruto stood, and looked down at himself. He didn't know when it had happened or what had caused it, but the right half of his body was covered in slowly healing wounds. Strangely, that had been the side closest to Ruby. He looked down at the small girl, and frowned. She must have been in so much pain, but not the physical kind. She had lost two friends in about an hour, both right before her eyes. He sighed. He needed to bring her down, though.

He picked her up, and peered over the edge. He funneled chakra into his feet and arms, solidifying his hold on the wall and on Ruby. He walked down slowly, trying to rationalize one important thing. That woman had been terrifyingly powerful. She had produced and controlled flames as easily as breathing, and she had even thrown a lightning bolt or two into the mix. He would never be able to beat her, not as he was now.

Soon enough, he reached the bottom, and began to make his way towards the docks, where he assumed everyone would be. There was a sort of dull pain all over his body, and a sense of being… lost, for lack of a better word. He drudged forth, waiting for someone to appear.

He wasn't disappointed in that respect. Qrow dropped down in front of him, "Hey, kid." He had a questioning look on his face.

"Hey, Qrow."

"Mind if I take my niece?" Naruto handed Ruby to him. "Thanks. I'll make sure she gets home safe, if you're worried."

"Alright. Qrow, I need to know… who was that woman?" Naruto asked, looking at Qrow determinedly.

Qrow sighed, "Look… some things are better left alone, kid. That woman is one of those things. If you try to go after her, she'll take you so close to death that you'll wish you hadn't been born."

"Tell me her name, at least."

"Cinder. She absorbed the power of the Fall Maiden."

"The what?"

"Never mind," Qrow dismissed. "Look, you can come with me if you want. I know Yang won't object, and Ruby would probably enjoy the company, too."

Naruto forlornly smiled down at the young huntress, "No… I think I know where I'm going."

"Where's that?"

"Don't worry; I'm not about to go try and fight her again."

"Hmph. Fine, not my place anyway. Take care, kid."

As Qrow left, Naruto stood still, staring over to the docks. He silently gathered Natural Energy, entering Sage Mode. He reached out with his senses, trying to at least see if he _could_ sense Cinder. To his disappointment and relief, he couldn't. He could, however, sense Blake coming closer to him. He looked off to the left, where she was leaping from roof to roof, headed in his general direction. Other than that, he couldn't really sense anyone beyond whoever was at the docks. Wait… no, never mind. Melissa was in the ruins, as was Troy. He couldn't sense Diana, however. Suddenly, Troy appeared next to him.

"Oh, thank God. Melissa was worried sick," Troy exclaimed.

"Where's Diana?" Naruto questioned. Troy's face fell.

"She… um… she… well, she's alive. But I don't know where she went. Last time I saw her, she was forcing her way onto one of the White Fang's Bullheads. She was… so violent about it, too."

"Alright. Thanks," Naruto turned to face the buildings to his left, just as Blake leapt over the last one, landing in a crouch next to him. "Hey, Blake."

She stood, and wrapped her arms around him, "Weiss said you fell off of the Tower. She… she didn't say anything else, so I was worried that… What happened?"

"Pyrrha… Pyrrha's dead," Naruto sighed. He waited for a moment, for any reaction at all, but was only met with silence. "Is everyone else ok?"

Blake nodded after a moment, apparently trying to process what he had said, "Everyone else is… fine. The Grimm were too distracted by the giant Grimm to pay attention when we fought them."

"There was a student who lost an eye, though," Troy added. "He was from Vacuo."

"Who?" Naruto asked. Troy shrugged, indicating that he didn't know. "Oh. What do we do? What are we supposed to do now?"

"The school is probably going to be closed for however long it takes them to clear out all of the Grimm," Blake answered. "And no one knows where Ozpin is."

"He's missing?" Now that Naruto thought about it, the last time he had sensed the headmaster was before he had fought Cinder. "Huh... Troy, can you go tell Melissa that I'm fine?"

"Sure." Troy disappeared.

Naruto turned to face Blake, "Let's head to the docks. There's no one else in the school."

As they began to walk, Blake glanced sideways at Naruto, "So, what's a Rasenshuriken?"

"It's what I call it when I use Dust in my Rasengan. Cause, ya know, it looks like a shuriken."

"Oh, ok. What was wrong with your eyes earlier? Why were they yellow?"

"That… that's a part of Sage Mode," Naruto replied hesitantly. "It's the most powerful technique I know, where I absorb Natural Energy, and use it to enhance all my abilities."

"Where- What?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you some time."

"Alright. Naruto, I need to ask a favor. I… I'm going home, just for a while. I want to spend some time with my family before... before I go after the White Fang. This was the last straw. They've hurt me, they've hurt my school, but no one hurts my friends. Will you come with me?"

Naruto gave himself a small grin at Blake's words, "If the people where you live don't mind a few explosions now and again, then sure."

Blake, as Naruto had hoped would happen, gave a small laugh, one full of delight. He glanced over his shoulder, looking to the top of Beacon Tower, where the Dragon was still frozen. He felt that, perhaps, he should just train for months, far out in the wild, where he could use clones with no issue. But no, he wasn't going to. Instead, he was going to travel with Blake to her home, because she had asked him to.

Melissa and Troy appeared behind them, and Melissa immediately leapt forward, enveloping him in a firm embrace, "You're ok!"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Naruto responded. Melissa stepped back. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm ok. Look, we're gonna go track down Diana."

"Okay. I can't help with that. I told Blake I was going with her."

"Oh… ok. No, that makes sense, I guess. You go be with your girlfriend."

Naruto grinned, "Still trying to tease, huh?"

"Yeah, I am."

* * *

 **Well, can't think of a better place to stop, at least not at the moment.**

 **Now, I should say that this is just an approximation of the Maiden's power. Until we get some comparison in canon, this is what I'm going with.**

 **And so, we bring Volume 3 to a close. Let me know what ya thought.**

 **So sorry to say, but I will be taking about a month-long break from this story. Part of that, granted, is that I wish to work on my new(ish) story, Remnants of Shinobi (Shameless self-promoting), but mostly I just need to take a brief pause from writing this story to work up new ideas for it. I've sort-of run out, you see.**

 **See you all in a month.**

 **Until Chapter 19!**


	19. Chapter 19: Boat Ride

**I know I said it would be a month, but I wouldn't feel right leaving off with the last three chapters being as they were. And besides, I already had this done.**

 **I've decided to remove this rant, as I wasn't a fan of getting basically the same review every hour or so. Shame, cause it was quite a well-substantiated rant, as well, or at least I thought.**

 **Though, even with this high school length essay I have here, I don't have an answer for how little an impact Naruto has made. That was a combination of several errors on my part, and boils down mostly to a colossal oversight. So, sorry about how much that honestly makes this story pointless up to now, as if reading filler. Admittedly, I hadn't even really bothered to revise or edit the last three chapters with anywhere close to effort I put into the others, especially bad since they're arguably the most important parts of RWBY canon.**

* * *

Chapter 19: Boat Ride

"Did we have to choose the absolute _slowest_ boat around?" Naruto groaned. He and Blake currently rode aboard a boat travelling to Menagerie, Blake's home. At the moment, both Faunus were on the deck, with Blake sitting against the railing that Naruto was sitting on, facing the ocean.

"It's not that bad, Naruto," Blake responded, not even looking up from her book. "I think it's a nice change from fighting every day."

"Blake, this isn't the first boat we've been on. Hell, last time we swapped boats, you bought new clothes. Why'd you do that, anyway?" Naruto queried. "Not that I don't like it," He added.

The cat Faunus had indeed undergone a change of apparel. For reasons unknown to Naruto, she now wore a black top that ended at her midriff, leaving it exposed. It also had a pattern of cutouts below the collar. Her pants were form-fitting and black, though mostly covered by the gold-trimmed black boots she wore over them. The ensemble was topped off with a white coat, the back of which extended down to her ankles. Also, she had abandoned her bow, a change that Naruto personally much enjoyed. Over her shoulder, the sheath for her sword, which she had told Naruto was named Gambol Shroud, went from her right shoulder to the left side of her waist.

Overall, she looked pretty good.

In response to Naruto's question, she rolled her eyes, "I felt it was time for a change. The old outfit just felt so… childish."

"Don't get me wrong, I like this one, but I thought the old one looked good."

"Yeah, but you're the one who still wears the same haori day after day."

"Hey, my last teacher made this for me!"

"Yeah, I know, Fukasaku," Blake resisted the urge to chuckle. "You never seem to stop going on about how what an amazing person he was."

"He's the one who taught me Sage Mode."

"That's still weird to me. How does Natural Energy mix with Aura, anyway?"

"Naturally," Naruto joked. Blake rolled her eyes again.

"Gee, thanks, Yang."

"Just picking up her slack. How's Ruby doing, anyway?"

"Yang said yesterday that she still hasn't woken up," Blake answered. "She's starting to worry about her."

"Geez, you'd think she'd at least mumble in her sleep or something after two weeks. Especially with her being the ball of energy that she is."

"This coming from the guy who spent a month in a coma."

"Hey, that was a month ago! Oh, wow. It's hard to believe how long ago I saw Konoha."

"How long ago was it?"

"By now, over a year."

Blake sighed, "I haven't been home in years, either."

"And then the one time you want to, you choose the slowest way we could have taken."

"Oh, please. We could have tried walking," Blake remarked. "Besides, it gives us a lot of free time."

Naruto glanced down at Blake, before turning around and letting himself slide down off the railing, winding up next to her, with an arm around her shoulder, "Yeah, it does. But I still wish I could spend it training."

Before Blake could respond, the boat suddenly lurched to the side. Blake groaned, "Another Grimm attack?"

"It's got to be. Eh."

"Shouldn't we help?" Blake questioned. Naruto shrugged.

"It's not like they need it."

"But isn't it a chance to train?"

"Not really. I can't really use my more powerful techniques, the ones I want to practice."

Before he had even finished his sentence, the water in front of the boat rose up, before breaking open to reveal a gigantic Grimm. Its body was flat, with pincers coming out of its sides close to the front. It had multiple appendages extending off the front, clawed on their ends. Its body was curled back, with the top of it facing towards the boat. The usual bony armor lined its eyes, with a red pattern in between them.

A crewman yelled out, "Jaekelopterus!"

The so-called sea scorpion lurched forwards, attacking at the front of the ship. Whoever was steering turned the boat to the left, narrowly avoiding the attack. Naruto grinned towards the Grimm, "On the other hand… this might be fun."

While Naruto closed his eyes, Blake rolled her own, and pulled her katana off her back. As she did, familiar orange markings appeared around Naruto's eyes. He opened his now-yellow orbs, and looked down, "Wow… there are three more of these things beneath us. Why are we so popular all of a sudden?" Blake shrugged. Naruto grinned again, "I guess it doesn't matter, really. Think you can take two of them?"

"Can you?" Without another word, Blake leapt at the one before them, only for it to whip its tail out of the ocean at her. It slammed into her, but her reactions were honed from years of experience. She stabbed into it, holding fast while it tried to shake her off. It roared at the Faunus, missing when Naruto leapt into the air. Blake used her sheath to stab into the tail again, then threw her ribbon around the Grimm's pincer. She ripped her sheath out of the tail, letting herself swing.

The arc of her swing brought her onto its back. When she landed, she stabbed into it again, stabilizing herself. As soon as she had, she glanced upwards, then rolled her eyes in amusement. Naruto came down and thrust the Rasengan into the Grimm's head, driving it down into the water. He yelled out to Blake, who had leapt off the back the moment Naruto hit it, "Still three more! I'm winning!"

She called back, "You're gonna lose!" No sooner had she said it then the other three rose up from the waters, one with a pincer aimed straight for her. In midair, she had no easy way to maneuver. Well, except for her clones. So that's exactly what she used. Her clone allowed her to dodge to the side while the pincer tore through it. When the pincer stopped, she grabbed onto the bone armor and shot down towards the monster's face. If any of her bullets affected it at all, it didn't show it. It shook its pincer wildly, trying to dislodge her. She held on tight, using her sword for more of a grip.

High above, having leapt off the sea scorpion's head, Naruto looked down at the battle taking place. Interestingly, only one of the Grimm was attacking Blake. The other two were on the same side of the boat, raking their claws along the side. They seemed to be focused on destroying the boat, not killing the people. He needed to stop them, or they would soon sink the vessel, far out in the middle of the ocean. They were too close to the boat for a Rasenshuriken, and he was too high up, too far away, for anything else to work.

He grinned regardless, and pointed himself towards the ocean, finally slowing down in the air. Beneath, though technically above, his feet, he produced a clone off of which he jumped, hurtling downwards towards the Grimm. As he fell, he formed two Rasengans in his hands. He fell in between the Grimm. As if in slow motion, he rotated himself in midair, thrusting a Rasengan into each of the Jaekelopterus. The technique forced them outwards, one headed towards the front of the ship while the other rocketed towards the back. Unfortunately, he hadn't hit anywhere particularly vulnerable, and the Grimm recovered quickly.

He glanced from one to the other as they lunged at him, wondering, "What to do, what to do…" He pulled out his disused chokutō, and plunged it into one of their mouths once they were close enough, effectively pinning it shut. Using his blade as leverage, he twisted at kicked the other one away, his senjutsu enhanced attack sending it soaring through the ocean's waters. He twisted once more, ending up on the Grimm's head. Chakra in his feet glued him to it, and he pulled his sword out of its mouth, allowing it to open it again. It screech in what he assumed was pain.

Blake watched as Naruto kicked away the sea scorpion, distracting from her own Grimm for a moment. In that moment, it brought its pincer to its mouth, and shook it towards its maw. Blake's eyes widened in surprise at the creativity of the Grimm, and stabbed once more into the claw she was mounted upon using her sheath. With her sword, or in this case her pistol, she shot into the open maw, aiming for the squishy bits. Those were typically the most painful. As soon as the bullets hit, the beast released an ear-splitting roar at her. She stared down into its mouth, narrowing her eyes. She glanced over at Naruto, then shrugged and let go of the pincer, dropping into the Grimm.

Once she fell inside, it closed its mouth instantly, only for it to rip open once more with what seemed to be a shriek of pain. The reason why was clear, given the fire inside of its mouth. Blake leapt out, firing one more round of Dust for good measure. With smoke curling off of it, the Grimm fell dead into the water. She smirked, only to look over to where Naruto was, and see that he had dispatched the other two. She rolled her eyes as she landed back on the front of the boat. A few moments later, Naruto dropped down next to her, his eyes returned to their normal brilliant blue.

"I win," he joked. "You up for a secon-"

Before he could finish, the boat teetered precariously to the side. Blake grabbed the railing, "What just happened?"

"Oh yeah… should have mentioned that they were ripping the boat apart," Naruto remarked. Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. Alarms began to sound all over the boat. "Guess I didn't stop them in time…"

An automated warning began to sound, "Warning. Warning. Water level rising. Warning. Warning. Water level rising." The message repeated after each finish, becoming annoying rather fast.

"Any ideas, Blake?"

* * *

"Are you sure that's it?"

"Well, it's either a White Fang camp… or we're about to give a school field trip one hell of a scare."

Troy rolled his eyes, "Very funny. Can you see anyone?"

Melissa looked around through her scope. With the enormous distance, it was a wonder she could see the tents, let alone trying to see people. "I can't tell. We're too far away. The valley goes about a kilometer down."

Troy and Melissa had tracked a group of White Fang members into the chasm between two rather sizable mountains, where the terror group had set up a base of operations, likely one that had assisted in supplying troops to attack Beacon. After all, it wasn't far from Vale, only a few miles away. And also, there were a number of Bullheads around the camp. Currently, the two members of Team MDNT were positioned close to the peak of one of the mountains, waiting for nightfall.

"Do you think she'll be down there?" Melissa asked, still looking through the scope.

"No, but this is our best lead. Besides, if she was, we'd know. She's not exactly quiet, ya know."

"Call it a hunch, but I don't think we'd hear her from over a kilometer away."

"Twenty more minutes, I think…" The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, casting a long shadow over the entire valley. "You remembered to bring Dust rounds, right?"

"Mostly just ice. A little fire and lightning, too."

"Anything explosive?"

"No. We're doing this one quietly." To support her words, Melissa fixed a silencer to the end of her rifle.

"Alright, but remember: We're here for information. Try not to kill anyone."

"Fine… "

Half an hour later, and the sun had gone out of the sky completely. The only source of light in the entire valley was the camp, where a few fires still burned against the darkness. Descending a mountain hadn't taken nearly as long as most people would think, especially not since one of the people descending could teleport. At the edge of the camp, Troy and Melissa were laying beneath some bushes. Troy whispered, "That's the command tent. We need to get in there."

"God, I wish Naruto were here. He could walk through this camp, no problem." Melissa examined the camp. There seemed to be a few guards patrolling here and there, and a searchlight that scanned the grounds. It wouldn't be easy to infiltrate. "And he complains about his whiskers not being useful…"

"I doubt that. He'd be spotted and questioned for not wearing a uniform." Troy pointed to the patrolman that was passing close to their bush, as if to indicate his outfit, one identical to all the other White Fang's uniforms. "Besides, I doubt our orange friend is really one for sneakiness."

"Yeah, I guess not."

"Get ready. The searchlight is passing. After it does, we need to move into the camp," Troy instructed. "Ready? 3…2…1. Go." The two of them moved up to a crouch, sneaking across the way, into the heart of the camp itself. They ducked in between two rows of tents, just as a patrolman turned the corner.

"Why aren't we just teleporting in?" Melissa asked.

"In case we fight. I need to be able to use my Semblance. Not to mention that our escape is more important," Troy answered, whilst the two stalked through the gap between the rows. They were nearing the tent that would house all sorts of information, like where a certain rainbow-colored prisoner might have been taken. After all, there was no way Diana could have taken the entirety of a White Fang camp. And so, the pair was working under the assumption that she had been taken prisoner. "Let's just hope the White Fang documents everything."

They were just across from their destination now. Unfortunately, it was guarded rather securely. There was a Faunus posted on the watchtower above it, not to mention the two guards at the entrance. On top of that, several patrolmen passed by every minute or so on their rounds. "This is going to be tricky," Troy observed. "We need to wait until the searchlight passes, then move in while it's dark."

"Good idea."

They didn't have to wait long. The telltale spotlight passed through soon enough, and the two students stood. As soon as they made a single move, however, the eyes of the two guards at the front of the tent shot up, and one of them, raised his gun while the other one entered the tent. "Come on out, you two!"

"How did they see us?" Troy asked with alarm. "It's pitch black!"

Moments later, a procession of Faunus exited the tent, each one bearing some kind of weapon. Mostly guns, but a few had blades. One rather large one had a chainsaw. "Hands up, scum!" he yelled, pointing the chainsaw in their direction.

"Melissa, grab my arm. We're teleporting into the tent." His leader did so, and moments later they found themselves inside the tent they had just been watching. They could hear confusion outside. "We don't have much time. Stick close to me, and look around for anything that might tell us where she is."

Melissa and Troy began to practically rip the inside of the tent apart as they searched for anything relating to prisoner transferring, or capture, or anything really. Melissa grabbed several papers that had any word relating to the matter plastered across the top. After only about half a minute, the entrance to the tent flapped open, and the large man with the chainsaw stepped through, "Ah, here you are. Good… my first kills in weeks."

"Melissa, now!" Troy called out. His leader shot several times at the Faunus, distracting him for long enough that she could get to Troy. She had just barely wrapped her hand around his collarbone when they vanished.

"God damn it!" the man yelled. One of his subordinates entered the tent.

"Sir?"

"FIND THEM!"

Nearly half a kilometer up the mountain to the south of the encampment, the air distorted for a moment before two people appeared, several feet off the ground. Melissa and Troy dropped down, still clutching the various papers to themselves. "That was _far_ too close," Troy exhaled.

"Yeah. But at least we might have gotten what we're looking for."

"No way to know unless we look. But I don't think here is safe. We need to get further away from this damn camp first."

"Right," Melissa agreed. The two began to climb the mountain, seeking the comparative safety of the other side. Given how tired Troy was after the far-distance jump he'd made, it took them most of the night. A few times, Melissa had turned with a fright, thinking that she had heard some White Fang Faunus behind them.

Eventually, they did reach the top of the mountain. The decent was much quicker, although not nearly as cautious. Not that there was much call for caution once they reached the peak. By now, they were far enough from the camp that it would take the White Fang hours to reach them.

Nearly six hours had gone by by the time that the pair reached the bottom of the mountain. Once there, Troy spoke up, "Alright, let me see everything."

Melissa handed him the papers she had taken, before sitting against a tree. Troy rifled through the cluster of papers, barely looking at each one for a moment before seeing it wasn't what he was looking for. Finally, he glanced at one, then held it closer as he read it carefully. "What is it?" Melissa asked.

"Well, she's definitely a prisoner of the White Fang. She was moved almost a week ago, all the way to Anima. We've got a journey ahead of us, it seems."

* * *

Ruby sat up, clutching her head and groaning. She looked around the room, seeing that her father was sitting in a chair, drowsing. The moment she had sat up, his head shot up, his eyes opening rather quickly.

"Ruby!" he stood up, and kneeled by the side of the bed. "You're awake!"

"Ugh... what happened?" Ruby groaned.

"Your uncle Qrow found you, unconscious," Taiyang answered. "He got you out of there, though, and brought you home safe."

"Wait… What about Naruto?! I saw him falling off the tower, is he ok?"

"Uh… I don't know. As far as I know, no one saw him afterwards."

"He's fine," Qrow interrupted, entering the room. "He's the one who brought you to me."

"He did?" Ruby asked. "Where is he?"

"I dunno. Last I saw of him was when he gave you to me. You'd have to ask someone else."

"Ruby? You awake?" Yang poked her head around the doorframe. Her face brightened. "Hey, there's my baby sister!"

"Yang!" Ruby complained. "Where's Naruto?"

"Don't know. But Blake is gone, too, so I can imagine what they're doing…"

"Ew, gross, Yang. What about Weiss?"

Yang's face fell, "Uh… her dad came down to Vale… and took her to Atlas."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know, Rubes. Maybe he just wanted his daughter close to him after everything that happened?"

Qrow snorted, but hid it behind a cough. Jacques Schnee, caring about a person? Not likely.

"What about Vale, and Beacon? Did they manage to clear out the Grimm?"

"Uh… Yang, why don't you go get Ruby something to drink?" Tai instructed. Yang reluctantly left the room. "Vale's fine. The Grimm were cleared, and the destruction has been mostly repaired. But Beacon is… tricky. That giant Grimm isn't… it isn't disappearing. Don't get me wrong, you did a number on it… but it keeps attracting more Grimm to the school."

"What do you mean?"

"Hm?"

"Tai, I'll take this one. You go help Yang with that drink," Qrow cut in. Tai glared slightly, but left the room anyways. "So, what were you wondering about, kiddo?" he queried, knowing full well what it was.

"Dad said I did a number on it… what did he mean? I didn't do anything."

"Heh… you wouldn't think so, huh? But tell me, what's the last thing you remember?" Qrow asked.

"I remember… seeing Naruto falling, and then reaching the top of the tower, and… Pyrrha… and Cinder," Ruby growled as she said the last name, but had to hold back a shudder as she remembered watching Pyrrha's lifeless head fall to the ground. "And then… everything was white, and my head hurt."

Qrow strode over to the window, staring out at the landscape of Patch, "The night you met Ozpin, what's the first thing he said to you?"

"I... don't know. It was something about-"

"Silver eyes."

"Huh?"

"Silver eyes. They're an extremely rare trait. But not just a cosmetic one. Remnant's full of legends and fairy tales. Some real, some not. The Tale of the Two Brothers, The Shallow Sea, The Isle of Whirlpools, The Mountain of Faces, and a lot of others," Qrow explained. "But one you don't hear much is the story of the silver-eyed warriors. It was said that the creatures of Grimm, the most fearsome monsters mankind had ever encountered, were afraid of these warriors, that they could fell a Grimm with a single look."

"So… you think that I'm one of-"

"No… I know you are. Couldn't have done what you did otherwise. Your mom would've been proud."

"So then… I can help, right? If I'm really as powerful as you say I am, then I can help, right?"

Qrow gave a small chuckle, "For now, you need rest. You're in no condition to be travelling anywhere." He made his way back over to the door. "Especially not all the way to Mistral." He gave a small wink, then left the room and a beaming Ruby behind.

Barely three weeks later, while Yang was training with Taiyang, Ruby met with Jaune, Nora, and Ren in front of their house. In her room, she left a note detailing that she was headed to Mistral. With luck, no one would notice it for a few hours, long enough for the four to get a good distance away. They may have beaten back Cinder at the Fall of Beacon, but they were still going to avenge Pyrrha. Qrow had all but told Ruby she needed to go to Mistral, and she wasn't one to disappoint her uncle. And who knew? Maybe she'd be able to find Naruto and Blake along the way.

Of course, she didn't see Yang watching her and the others leave.

* * *

 **So, yes, it's a lot shorter than normal. At this time of year, it seems as though everybody enjoys dumping as much work as physically possible onto a person, as if to extract as much labor as they may from this person without killing them.**

 **In other words, I've been busy with shit, but wanted to finish this sometime soon anyways. That said, I am going to shorten up these chapters a tad so that I don't burn through the rest of this story by December.**

 **And thus, Volume 3 comes to a close, somehow after Volume 4 started.**

 **Until Chapter 20!**


	20. Chapter 20: A Change

**I'm feeling nice, so here's one more chapter before I fall completely into an unfortunate bout of Laziness/Writer's Block. Just can't make myself sit down and type for hours like I used to.**

 **Alright… so, I know that the time skip was roughly 6 months or more, but I really don't buy that. That would mean that Blake spent 6 months or more on a boat to Menagerie. Sorry, but that doesn't seem probable.**

 **Also, thank you to everyone who debated me on the points I made last chapter. No, seriously. The only thing that annoyed me about it was that most of you were guests, so I couldn't actually have a back-and-forth with most of you. You may have noticed I have actually removed the rant. That's because there were a few excellent points made throughout the 20 or so counterarguments that were posted that managed to convince me on a few topics that I brought up. Granted, I still hold a few of the same beliefs, but differentiating between Speed and Overall Power is important.**

* * *

Chapter 20: A Change

Two months passed by rather quickly. Before she even knew it, Ruby and her friends were already trekking across Anima. Somehow, neither Yang nor her dad had caught up to them yet, leaving Ruby to believe that they hadn't followed the four of them. Either way, she needed to focus. Dashing through the forest was hard enough, even more so with a giant Grimm chasing her. She leapt off the final tree, turning and firing multiple shots, propelling herself even further out over the cliff she had just leapt off of.

Unfortunately, her bullets weren't designed to break apart solid stone, as this Grimm seemed to be made of. At a time like this, she felt a little jealous of people who could just break it apart with sheer force, like Yang or Nora. However, right now she couldn't waste time with jealousy. Instead, she needed to focus on the Grimm-

-that just fell off the cliff trying to hit her. Did it not see the drop? Ruby felt like shrugging, but was too busy falling alongside it, bouncing off of sturdy tree branches in the process. "Bad- Landing- Strategy!" She landed on the third branch in a crouch, then sped out of the way of the Grimm's attack with her Semblance. The giant stone arm took out most of the trees it slammed against, tipping several others as well.

The Grimm stood in a small clearing, one that it was slowly expanding with each attack. Jaune, Nora, and Ren. were watching from just outside the clearing. Jaune spoke first, "Let's get that thing off her!" Jaune ran off the right, trying to distract the Grimm, while Ren leapt into a tree, followed by Nora.

"We need to draw its attention away from Ruby!" Ren only just spoke when a cloud of rose petals flew past them.

Ruby called out as she passed, "Could use some help!" She sped past the Grimm, getting it to turn towards her and away from Ren and Nora. Nora shot several grenades at the Grimm, with each exploding against its back. Ren dropped down to the ground, where the Grimm attempted to strike him. Ren ran up its rock arm, flying into the air, and coming down near the Grimm's distinctive face. It brought its arms up to protect itself, just as Ren slashed with his weapons. The thick stone blocked the attack entirely.

Jaune yelled, "Gotta get in closer!" Just then, Ren landed beside him.

"My blades don't hurt him!"

Ruby yelled out in a war cry of sorts, "How about this?!"

She loaded a magazine of lightning Dust into her scythe, then sped in front of the hulking monster and fired it. The monster intercepted with its arm, causing electricity to arc up and down it for several moments. The Grimm slammed it into the ground, kicking up a shockwave in all directions, sending each of the students flying. Ren and Nora landed on their feet, while Ruby used her scythe to keep steady. Jaune, however, bounced along to ground until slamming into a rock.

Nora, frustrated, roared at the Grimm, "That's it!" She ran forward, tossing her grenade launcher into the air as it transformed into hammer mode. She grabbed it out of the air and leapt up at the Grimm. She gave a mighty swing, breaking its arm apart. The Grimm seemed to try to recall its stone arm, but just ended up sending large piece flying straight towards Nora, only for Ruby to get between the girl and the stone and slice it in half with her scythe. In retaliation, the Grimm tried unsuccessfully to attack Ruby and Nora.

A short distance away, Jaune stood and observed the Grimm. As he watched, the Grimm's armless shoulder began to glow a faint red, before a glowing red circle with a strange symbol in the middle of it appeared. The circle spun, and then a black, elongated arm with clawed fingers emerges from it. The arm reared back, as if to swipe in front of it. Jaune groaned, "Uh-oh." The Grimm shoved its new arm into the tree Jaune was leaning against and lifted it from the ground.

Jaune turned and ran, "His arm is a tree! His arm is a tree!"

Ruby smirked, "Big mistake!" She loaded a cartridge of fire Dust into her scythe, aiming at the wooden arm. She fired, hitting the arm right in the center. Jaune turned to face it and pumped his fist for a moment, before the Grimm brought the arm back around, but now on fire, and prepared to keep attacking the blond.

Jaune's eyes widened as he turned again and ran, "Big mistake!" The Grimm followed Jaune, swinging the flaming arm at him. It missed twice, but Jaune tripped as he ran. Just as the flaming tree was to be brought down on Jaune, a green dagger-pistol spun through the air and cut across the Grimm's mask, causing it to stumble backwards. Ren landed beside Jaune and caught his gun as it spun back like a boomerang. Ruby and Nora came up behind their teammates, ready to continue the fight. "Okay, how do we do this?"

Ren tried a suggestion, "His body is too thick to break through."

Jaune muttered, "It doesn't care about its body…"

Nora cut in, "Plus it can keep grabbing new limbs!"

"But it keeps protecting its face," Jaune pondered. "If we knocked all of its limbs off at once and went for the…" Jaune's eyes lit up with an idea as he turned to face his team. Behind him, the Grimm began to rise. "Guys, I got it! We hit it _harder_!"

Ren almost scoffed, "Is that it?"

"No, seriously!" Jaune insisted. "It's trying to keep us from its face. If we kill the limbs, we'll have a shot to kill the whole thing!"

"Alright! Come on, team, let's do this!" Ruby let out excitedly.

Nora agreed, "Yeah!"

Jaune began the orders, "Ren, left. Ruby, right." Ren leapt of to the left, and Ruby the right. "Nora, ready to try out the new upgrade?" Nora nodded with a grin and ran forward. "Right. And I will-" The Grimm's still-flaming tree-arm came down just behind him, knocking him off his feet. Ruby came in from the right side while Ren attacked from the left. Nora, meanwhile, activated a mechanism that sent a current of electricity across the hammerhead of her hammer. Jaune ran around to make himself a target, trying his best to distract the Grimm. "I'll take over here!"

The Grimm began to look from side to side almost furtively, trying to focus on one person out of the three attacking it. Nora charges her hammer even more and braces her feet, "Ready!"

Ruby landed next to Jaune after another of her attacks. "Use everything you've got!" Jaune ordered.

Ruby grinned, before she used her Semblance to fly at the Grimm, taking Nora with her, creating a pink-and-red swirl of petals and electricity, headed right for the flaming tree. Ruby sliced the tree in half, opening the way for Nora to smash the Grimm's face with her hammer. The colossal stone body fell across the clearing, and a geist-like Grimm rose up from where the face had been. Its face was identical to the mask that the stone giant had hosted.

Ruby raised her sniper rifle, and aimed for the Grimm. One well-placed bullet later, and tatters of Grimm dust scattered into the breeze, leaving behind nothing but a mound of stone and a tree that had finally stopped burning.

Several hours later, the four found themselves being profusely thanked by a mayor. They had been killing the Grimm for this town, after all. In exchange, the blacksmith was performing maintenance, and even spiffing up Jaune's weapon. That was why he hadn't had one in the encounter with the Grimm. After managing to convince the mayor that they didn't need any greater payment, the four made their way to the forgery, to collect Jaune's sword and board.

The blacksmith emerged with Jaune in his new armor, with his new weaponry, "He cleans up alright, don't you think?"

Jaune's old armor had been replaced with a more knightly looking chestplate of white metal, trimmed with gold, along with a shoulder guard on his left shoulder. On his hands, there were matching gauntlets. In his right hand he held his sword, but it had a much more regal appearance to it. His shield was changed in much the same way as his armor, trimmed with gold, reinforcing it. At the bottom, there was a design reminiscent of his late partner's circlet.

Ren agreed with the blacksmith, "He certainly does."

Nora scrutinized her leader, "I still think a grenade launcher would've really brought the look together…"

"Nothing's gonna stop Team RNJR now!" Ruby excitedly declared.

Nora corrected her, "Team JNRR!"

Ren sighed, "Still not a color."

Jaune cut in, "It doesn't matter what we're called. As long as we're together."

"You kids sure you won't stick around?" the blacksmith asked. "You've been real good to this town."

"Sorry, but we've got another mission." Ruby apologized.

"Make it to Haven Academy!" Nora cheered. "No matter what!"

Ren added, "We've heard the next village over has a working airship."

The blacksmith thought for a moment, "Hmm, no way to know for sure. Scroll signals were weak enough out here back when Beacon Tower was still up. Haven't heard from Shion Village in a while."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Ruby replied. Team RNJR/JNRR turned, and made their way out of the town. "Wonder what Naruto's doing?"

"Probably something crazy, like killing twenty Goliaths at once or something," Jaune answered.

"Don't be silly. I doubt Blake would want to spend any time fighting if she didn't have to," Ren debated, with a slight smile.

Ruby glanced at him, "Really? I thought she liked fighting… huh…"

Nora whispered to Jaune, "I don't think she got it."

Jaune frowned at his teammate, "Got what?"

None of them heard the snickering from the nearby robed figure.

* * *

A group like this one being focused on one person gave away one thing: That person certainly commanded respect. The kind of people making the group, the four seated around the table, in their chairs of bone, could only be guessed at. However, one might have been able to take a hint of what they might be like from the fact that Cinder was among them.

And yes, they were all focused on one person. This person, a woman of deathly white skin and red eyes, with vein-like lines spreading outwards from those eyes, stood with her back to the table around which the group of four sat. When she spoke, she had the rapt attention of the entire room, "Watts." The man with an exaggerated moustache and an expensive suit stiffened as she addressed him. The woman turned to face him, "Do you find such malignance necessary?"

Watts bowed respectfully, "I apologize, ma'am. I'm not particularly fond of failure."

The woman sat down at the head of the table, pausing for a moment, "Then I see no reason for your cruelty towards young Cinder. She's become our Fall Maiden, destroyed Beacon Tower, and most importantly, killed dear Ozpin. So I'm curious, to what failures are you referring?"

Watts had a moment of nervousness before he was able to answer, "Well, the girl with the silver eyes."

The large man next to Watts spoke up, "Yes. We've dealt with their kind before. How is it a novice was able to best one of us?"

Watts added, "My thoughts exactly. Even without her new power, it should have been effortless."

"It is because of the Maiden's power," The woman spoke. "Make no mistake, Cinder, you hold the key to our victory. But your newfound strength brings with it a crippling weakness. Which is why you will remain by my side as we continue your treatment."

Cinder lowered her head, refusing to show her unhappiness. Next to her, Emerald looked down at her in pity. Mercury gave no reaction, presumably caught up in wonder, horror, and/or fear of everything around him. The woman turned back to Watts, "Doctor Watts, you are to take Cinder's place and meet with our informant in Mistral."

Watts smirked at Cinder, "Very good."

The woman turned to the last member of their coven, "Tyrian, I want you to continue your hunt for the Spring Maiden."

Tyrian cackled maniacally, "Gladly."

The woman turned to the hulking man, "And Hazel, I'm sending you to the leader of the White Fang. Adam Taurus has arranged the meeting. The boy continues to prove loyal… Ensure that Sienna Khan feels the same."

Hazel bowed his head, "As you wish."

Cinder raised a finger, gesturing to Emerald. She leaned in to hear Cinder. Cinder rasped into her ear, her ability to speak having been drastically weakened when Ruby had unleashed the power of her silver eyes. Moments later, Emerald straightened. The woman looked to her, "Speak, child."

"She wants to know…" She hesitated. "What about the girl? And… um… the boy with the power of the Maidens?"

The woman seemed intrigued, "Oh? You have failed to mention this prior to now, Cinder. What is this news of a male with the 'power of a Maiden?'"

Cinder gestured again to Emerald, who spoke for her, "There was a… a boy, a Faunus, who Cinder fought. He… he could use attacks that only a Maiden could."

The woman crossed her hands in front of her face, closing her eyes for a few moments, "Interesting… Perhaps this would be a more prudent threat. I shall make note of him. For now, however… Tyrian, I want you to track down this silver-eyed girl. Bring her back here." She turned away from an excited Tyrian to face Watts, "Haven may wait. I want you to find any information you can on this boy."

When she had finished speaking, Emerald spoke for Cinder again, "Cinder says… um… well, she says she can take down the boy."

"Can you?" The woman questioned the Maiden. "We will not simply throw away this opportunity, Cinder. This is a chance to bring even more power to us."

Cinder bowed her head, hiding her frustration. Tyrian let out an excited cackle once more, before the group dispersed, respectfully bowing to the woman before they left. Only Emerald, Mercury, Cinder, and the woman were left. "I want to know more about this boy, Cinder."

* * *

It wasn't every day one sees a boat sinking. In fact, it's a rather rare occurrence to see, unless one spends much of their time of boat. However, it is a happenstance of enough frequency that there is, in fact, protocol that a crew follows when it does occur. For one, patching the hole as quickly as possible. In this instance, where near the entire side of the boat had been caved in and broken apart by the Grimm, that wasn't much of an option. That left the option of sealing the level where the water was pouring in. Given that the hole transcended multiple levels of the cruiser, that also wasn't an option.

Or rather, that _hadn't_ been an option. Naruto was no engineer, but even he understood that simple principle: water make boat sink. Seeing no other option out of the plethora available to him, He chose perhaps the least sensible one. So now, instead of letting all the people on the boat drown, he used Sage Mode to locate all of the passengers, then he had a small army of clones to carry everyone. This 'small army' was actually about a hundred clones or so. The boat, since it was going to Menagerie, hadn't had many passengers. Not many people wanted to go to the home of the Faunus, it seemed.

Naturally, the people he was saving were grateful, if a little amazed at what he was doing. After all, how many people can walk on water or make an army of themselves? It only helped that he had had to travel a very far distance before they had found land. However, no one was sure where they were now. The only thing any of them could tell was that they weren't on an island, on account of how long the shore was. The boat had been between Sanus and Anima, so it was possible it could've been either one of those continents.

The captain was getting finished with thanking a sheepish Naruto, "Thank you, lad. I can't say it enough."

"Heh, heh. It's no problem. Will you all be ok now?" Naruto asked. The captain gave a nod.

"We'll have no trouble. We may not know where we are, but I'm sure someone has a scroll and a map."

"Alright, that's good." Naruto gave his goodbye to the captain, then went to where Blake was sitting, staring at the ocean. "You alright, Neko-chan?"

She glanced up at him, "I'm fine. I can't say the same for your clothes, though."

Naruto looked down at himself, studying his clothing. His orange jumpsuit was torn and ripped in various places. Presumably, it had happened while he was fighting the various sea Grimm that had attacked while everyone was being brought to safety, or even while he was defending the boat. His haori seemed alright, though. Gotta love that toad craftsmanship, and whatever seals they had used to keep it durable. He rubbed the back of his head, "Heh… guess I didn't notice it. I'll need a new one."

Blake raised an eyebrow, "It's pretty warm in Menagerie… When we get there, you'll want something less thick. I'm sure you could get away with just the haori and some pants."

"Really? Alright… but they need to be orange. And maybe… We should find someone who can work metal, too. I need to get something made. Or, remade."

"What is it?"

"A surprise."

"Oh… alright… So, I think we're on the edge of Anima. Those trees don't grow on Sanus." Blake emphasized her point by indicating several odd trees. "So if we're where I think we are, then there's a small town kind of far down the coast, but it's within walking distance. We can probably reach it by the end of the day, if we go now."

"Got it. Let's go!" Naruto took off running, slower than he would usually go, on account of wanting to let Blake keep up. Soon enough, she had caught up with him.

"We don't need to run, you know!" she complained. Naruto abruptly slowed to a walk, while Blake kept going for several feet. "You seem more energetic than usual, Naruto."

"Nah. I just think we should get there before dark," Naruto replied as they kept walking. "You said it's pretty far, and I need clothes. Mine are barely hanging by a thread."

Blake muttered something Naruto couldn't quite hear, then spoke up, "That's a bit of an exaggeration. They're not in terrible shape, they're just missing large swaths of fabric here and there."

"Blake, the entire bottom half of my pants is somewhere in the middle of the ocean, and a lot of the front of my jacket is there with them. They're in bad shape."

Blake gave an response, but Naruto didn't hear it on account of the sudden booming voice.

" **Brat, do you sense that?"**

' _Of course I don't, Kurama. I'm not in Sage Mode.'_

" **You shouldn't need that… ability… to sense this."**

' _What do you mean?'_

" **Just use a little of my chakra for a moment, and you'll see."**

' _I can't do that right now. Blake's right next to me. She'd probably be a little alarmed.'_

" **You and your foolish humans bonds… Very well."**

' _Wait, so… what is it?"_

" **I'll tell you some other time. It's not a threat, not that I can tell. I think it's dormant."**

' _Ooooooooook…"_

Naruto shook himself out of his mental conversation. Blake was staring at him oddly, "Naruto? Did you hear me?"

"Uh- sorry, I was talking to Kurama. What did you say?"

Blake furrowed her brow, "Who? Actually, never mind. I had asked you where you're from."

"Oh! I'm from Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

"I've never heard of it. Where is it? What continent?"

"It was destroyed a while back. It's not on any maps."

"Yeah, you said that before, but where was it?"

"In the middle of nowhere, really." Naruto changed the topic, "So, what's your family like?"

Blake gazed at him suspiciously for a moment, "They're… Well, my dad is the chieftain of Menagerie, ever since he left the White Fang."

"He was a part of the White Fang?" Naruto questioned. "Is that why you were a part of it?"

"Yeah. I was basically born into it, thanks to my dad's position."

"What did he do in the Fang? Pass out flyers? Raid stores?"

"No, that was before they became what they are now. After he stepped down as leader, a violent man named Sienna Khan was chosen as the leader. He drastically changed its goals and ideals, and now it's branded a terrorist organization by the entire world."

"Your dad was the leader of the White Fang?" Naruto asked with quite some surprise behind it. "You never mentioned that before."

"Yes, he was. I, uh… wasn't very nice to them when they left. And I haven't seen them since, so this might be a little awkward."

"What about that bull guy?"

"Adam? He was one of the more promising recruits while my dad still ran it. After we were ordered to attack shops and rallies, he stood out as an exceptional fighter, and he was put into a leadership position. I got paired up with him after a while," Blake explained. "We ran missions for a while, and eventually… we got more _involved_ in the partnership than we probably should have."

"So, what happened?" Naruto queried.

Blake sighed, "He started to lose himself in the Fang's methods. He took to heart our belief that humans are worthless, horrible monsters who bring nothing but pain to Faunus. He started to kill any human he could, as long as he could justify it to someone above him. I didn't want to be a part of that, so I left him behind and went to Beacon to hide."

"Why Beacon?"

"Because then I could become a huntress, someone who could take on the corruption and evil in the world and win."

"Corruption and evil, huh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. He glanced off to the left, towards the sea. "Back before I left my home, I kept having to fight against a group known as the Akatsuki. They were obsessed with taking the Kyūbi for themselves, along with the other Bijū. I don't know what they planned to do with them, but anyone who had their Bijū extracted died. They killed a good friend of mine, and I almost lost myself to the Kyūbi when that happened."

"What's a Bijū? You've never mentioned them before."

Naruto hesitated. He had come this far, so he might as well keep going. Besides, it was Blake. If she didn't believe him, who would? "Bijū are the tailed beasts. There were, or maybe are, nine in total. The Kyūbi is one of them, the Nine-Tails. They're all very powerful beings who could have easily destroyed our villages."

Blake stared incredulously at him, "How is it that you answered my question but made me want to ask even more?" She sighed, "Never mind. How did your people deal with them?"

"Well, we had very strong huntsmen in our villages, like my dad. We would always keep the Bijū sealed away inside of people who were usually taught to control their power."

"Wait, I though you said that your dad was the only one who could seal them."

Naruto shrugged, "Nah. A lot of people were capable of it, at least when they worked together. Ero-Sennin was pretty good at it, too."

"So, what was a Tailed Beast, then?"

Naruto glanced at her, "This might take a while to explain."

* * *

"This is taking a really long time, Troy. Are you sure we can't just teleport or fly?" Melissa asked slowly, mostly focusing on not falling off the steep rock wall. Troy had insisted that they not use up any Aura or stamina using their Semblances to climb faster. They would apparently need them to fight a few Grimm.

"Yes, I'm sure. These Grimm may be very dangerous. We need to be on our guard."

"They're just Ursa, ya know. The shopkeeper was just guessing when he said there might be a Goliath, Troy." Melissa pulled her legs up to new footholds, steadying herself. "You don't have to be so serious."

"Sorry, but he knows where the White Fang camp is. I don't want to lose this chance."

"And that's great, but we're taking a really long time to get up this thing. Wouldn't it just be better for us to get up there quickly, then wait if we really needed to?"

"No. Besides, climbing this wall'll help build endurance."

"Funnily enough, I'm not concerned about that." She grabbed ahold of another rock that was jutting out of the wall, only for it to break under her grip. "Shit!" She quickly grabbed another one, stabilizing herself.

"Be careful."

"You know that there's no problem if I do fall, right?"

"Yeah, I know. We're almost to the top now. Get ready for a fight."

Only a minute later, Troy peered over the top of the cliff, met with the sight of no less than two dozen Ursa. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any Goliaths, so they were in the clear there. Melissa climbed up next to him, following his example of looking around. "It's only twenty eight Ursai. We can take them down easily."

"Not if we have to fight all of them at once. You're not great with your staff, and I don't think it would be a good idea for me to fight all twenty eight at once while you support."

"We can still take them. If you get into too much trouble, you can teleport away, and I can take out most threats from the air while you focus on other Grimm."

Troy hesitated, "…Fine." He hoisted himself up onto the top of the cliff. "But we'd better live through this. Diana's counting on us."

Melissa grinned, "Don't worry. Like Naruto would say, we're not giving up on our friend, and we're not dying 'til she's ok." She hovered several meter's away from the edge of the cliff, readying her rifle. Troy rushed at the nearest Grimm, jumping past it and quickly and efficiently slitting its throat. He whirled around upon landing, shooting three bullets into the open wound, killing it to death.

An Ursa lunged from behind, only to be blasted away by Melissa's cover fire. The ice Dust she was using froze its head in a block of ice. Troy charged towards another Ursa, sliding under its attack and stabbing upwards into its face. A round from Melissa made sure it wouldn't get up again. Troy leapt off of its dissolving corpse towards another one, passing over it and anchoring himself to it with his knives. He shot into the side of its head with one of them, then repeated it on the other side. Meanwhile, Melissa had frozen several of the Grimm that would have attacked her teammate.

Over half an hour later, all of the Grimm were dead to either a knife or bullet. Troy was doubled over, breathing heavily, while Melissa was sitting against a rock, too tired from using her Semblance for so long to even stand. Her Aura was almost completely gone. Troy had been right; it was a good thing they hadn't flown or teleported up here.

"Now I get why they don't send first years out against hordes of Grimm…" Melissa joked between breaths. Troy rolled his eyes, then fell back onto the ground, staring up at the sky. "So, are we heading back now?"

"Give…" Troy took a breath. "Give me a moment."

After a while, Troy walked over to Melissa and gripped her shoulder. Together, they disappeared. At the entrance to a small village, the air bent and fragmented as two people appeared. Troy stumbled, and Melissa held him upright.

A nearby huntsman took notice, and rushed over to help. Melissa thanked him, but he waved it off, "Don't worry about it. It's my job. What happened to you kids?"

"Half an hour against some Ursa. We did it for a shopkeeper in town here."

"Oh, so you're students? Well, I don't know if anyone's told you this yet, but welcome to Shion Village."

* * *

 **And we're done here. I'll see you all once I've clawed my way back from this lack of effort I feel like putting into everything.**

 **Until Chapter 21!**


	21. Chapter 21: Anima

Chapter 21: Anima

"Hm… Nothing here… it simply says he was a student… oh, what is this?" One Dr. Arthur Watts was scouring Beacon's records for information on the blond Faunus that the girl, Cinder, had mentioned. He had no idea _why_ Salem had taken such an interest in the boy, but his orders still stood, and he wasn't so arrogant as to disobey the Queen. However, that didn't change the fact that Dr. Watts still saw him as only child. Why, even Cinder had been able to defeat him. He couldn't be _that_ useful to them if even the girl could beat him, now could he?

But these thoughts of his were lost to curiosity the moment he began to look into the boy's history. While at first, he seemed to be an average student, little bits of information began to surface that made Watts question him. Ozpin had insisted on documenting everything, it seemed. This included an incident at Vale's docks, a mission labelled Village Destroyer, something called 'Sage Mode', and some seemingly unconnected documents about something called 'Kyūbi' and a village called Konohagakure. All of this was found in the boy' file, something that originally confused Watts.

A mere hour later, and Watts had copied everything from the boy's file, intending to not only give it to Salem, but also read himself. Specifically, he wanted to know how a mere student had taken on someone that Ozpin had labelled as a 'false god'.

Something else had caught his eye while he was searching. The boy, it seemed, hadn't existed until roughly the start of Beacon's school year. Ozpin had been looking into it, and Watts was curious enough that he would most likely continue the ex-headmaster's investigation.

He made sure that his scroll had finished extracting the files from the school's database before he unplugged it. The basement at Beacon echoed with the many sounds of the various Grimm above, and to be honest, it was a rather eerie collection of noises. But mostly, Watts just found them to annoyingly loud. He checked once again where the blond's dorm room had been, intending to head there next. Perhaps the boy's possessions could tell Watts something about him.

But as it turned out, the boy seemed to have left nothing behind. His teammates all seemed to have left various articles lying about the room, but the only thing that the boy seemed to have was a giant stuffed panda, for some reason, and a scroll that seemed as though it hadn't ever really been used. There was also an orange kimono in one of the closets, which was the only piece of clothing in it. Something about this boy was highly strange. He searched a bit more, but he only found a book with strange markings in it, as though it was written in code. Just in case, he took it with him.

Watts' next destination was the school's security center, where all the footage was stored from the various cameras on campus and in the Emerald Forest. Strangely, Ozpin had removed a number of them, and stored them in his personal database, which was protected by more than just a password. Of course, that didn't mean that it could keep Watts out. The footage was separated into two different folders, labelled Kyūbi and No Aura. Intending to watch them later, Watts downloaded them to his scroll, before he noticed that some of them were purposefully corrupted. As in, the headmaster would have had to manually introduce code into them that rendered them unwatchable. Watts took note that Ozpin seemed to have been overly fixated on this boy.

With no other relevant information at the school, Watts took his leave, looking over the various pieces of information he had already. Based on what he had read already, this 'Konohagakure' was apparently a village where the boy had lived, so perhaps he could find answers there. Smirking smugly to himself, he pulled up a map of Remnant on his scroll, thinking that he could be in the village in an hour or two.

* * *

"Alright, we cleared out the Ursa. Now tell us what you know about this White Fang camp," Troy demanded, one hand on the counter and the other near his holster, just in case. After all, they were dealing with an ex-White Fang operative. Couldn't be too careful, no matter what he was doing now. That was why they had taken a night to recover before confronting him again.

"Easy there. The camp's 'bout five or six miles north of here. And it's real fortified," the merchant answered. "I don't know why you'd want to go there. Back when I was in the Fang, it-"

He was cut off by a huge explosion echoing from the outside. "What in the- What was that?" he demanded, as if the two students before him knew any better than he did.

Melissa turned to Troy, "We should check it out!" He nodded in agreement, and they both rushed outside. There was a pillar of smoke rising from near the entrance to the town. "What's going on?" Melissa asked a huntsman who was rushing past.

"How the hell should I know? Look, either get to safety or come and help me!" he responded. Without a need to think about their decision, Troy and Melissa ran after him, towards the smoke. Perhaps it wasn't the best decision, but they were a future huntsman and huntress, and they had a job to do. Of course, they had second thoughts when four more pillars of inky black smoke appeared around the first, but it didn't deter them. They had seen far worse than some smoke, and they had lived.

Nearing the area that was clearly under attack, Troy and Melissa scaled one of the buildings close to them to get a better vantage. Melissa pulled her rifle off of her back and looked through the scope towards what was quickly becoming a battle. "It looks like bandits. And someone is using Dust attacks. Ya know, lightning and such. They're really good with them too."

"Can you get a good shot from here?" Troy asked.

"I can, yeah. But Troy, we need to get to Diana. We don't really have time for this."

"We have to at least try to help these people. We can't just leave them to these bandits."

"Well…" Before Melissa could continue, an ear-splitting shriek sounded from just outside the village. Melissa looked back down her scope towards the bandits, noting that they kept fighting as though they hadn't heard the Grimm. "It sounded like a Nevermore. Do you think they're trying to draw Grimm here?"

"I don't know," Troy scanned the skies around the village. "Wait… Melissa, tell me something. If that was a Nevermore, why isn't it flying towards us right now?"

His leader looked up, following his lead in looking around the air. "That's… weird. Maybe-" Once again, the Grimm's horrific shriek split the air, just before it broke through the tree line. Melissa was still looking in the air for the Grimm, but he didn't need Melissa's sniper to be able to see it, nor would he ever forget it. The sight of the creature burned its way into his brain, etching out a place amongst things he would like to never have to see again. As if on autopilot, Troy grabbed Melissa's shoulder, and the both of them vanished from the rooftop.

Troy hadn't teleported anywhere in particular, and they both of them suddenly found themselves hundreds of stories in the air, and falling fast. After a moment of disorientation, since she hadn't had any warning, Melissa grabbed onto Troy and began to float downwards much slower than before.

"What was that about?" she questioned. Troy shook his head.

"The Grimm. It was like a… like a… I don't even really know how to describe it. But… well, I learned to trust my intuition a long time ago, and it said to run," he answered, leaving Melissa rather confused. From their immense height, Melissa surveyed the landscape.

"Do you have any idea where we are, Troy?"

"No. We should be over Anima still, though." Troy looked around, then pointed off to the distance, "Yeah, see there? The smoke? That's Shion Village. Which means," he pointed to his left, "that way should be north."

"But… well, shouldn't we go back and help them?"

"Melissa, they have huntsmen that are much better trained than we are. I'm sure that they can handle it. And besides, Diana's waiting."

Melissa looked away, then spoke reluctantly, "Alright, fine. Let's go."

* * *

"So, where do we go now?" Naruto asked, since Blake knew more about the area then he did. He had already gotten his new pants, orange as he had wanted. They passed just over the tops of his sandals before they ended, making them just longer than his old pants. They had also visited the blacksmith, and Naruto had requested a piece to be made. Now that the sun was disappearing entirely beyond the horizon, Naruto was wondering where they were going to sleep.

"How come you're so attached to your cloak?" Blake asked abruptly, ignoring his question.

He looked down at it, "It's the last thing I've got from my old home. I don't really want to leave it behind." Then he thought for a moment, "Oh, yeah… I did have my teacher's old book, but I think I left that at Beacon. I'll have to go back and get it someday."

"Your teacher wrote a book? This isn't the perverted one, is it?" Blake asked warily.

Naruto laughed, a grin adorning his face, "No, it's not like that. This one was about a guy who fought to bring peace to the whole world, even though everyone kept telling him it was pointless. Ero-Sennin told me that it was apparently based on his own life as a huntsman."

"Really? So how come he stopped writing about that?"

"It didn't sell well, and no one read it. But Ero-Sennin never gave up his dream of peace, not even when he died."

"He died?" Blake suddenly looked concerned.

"Yeah, a while ago. I never mentioned that, did I?" Naruto pondered. "Pain killed him, before he destroyed my home." He clenched his fist, remembering getting the news. It had really taken him by surprise, although being able to kill Pain and avenge his teacher and village had brought a sense of satisfaction. He mentally shook his head, clearing it of the Sasuke-like thoughts.

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that, Naruto."

"Don't worry about it. Anyway, where are we sleeping tonight? I don't think this place really has a hotel, ya know." Blake looked around, as if she hadn't realized that little issue.

"Yeah, I know that much. I just assumed we would keep going after we stopped here," she answered.

"I gotta wait for the blacksmith to be done, and he said he would only be able to do it tomorrow."

Blake sighed, "What is he making for you, anyway?"

"It's… well, it's something important to me."

The next morning, after a somewhat sleepless night in a few trees just outside town, Naruto and Blake stopped back by the blacksmith, and Naruto was pleased to find that his product had been completed. The blacksmith gave him a toothy smile, "Tha' was an easy piece, son. Jus' a bi' a metal an' some etchin'."

"Thanks," Naruto replied, walking out. Blake took one look at him.

"We waited for a headband?"

Naruto finished tying his new headband to his forehead, the symbol of Konoha etched into the metal adorning the black fabric. "Like I said, it's important to me. All of the huntsmen and trainees in my old village wore one, and I gave mine to Bangs and Bomb to use in my sword. That's why that symbol near the hilt is there."

"Huh… how come you never wore it before you got you sword?" Blake questioned. Naruto shrugged.

"I took it off, and I guess I just never thought about putting it back on. I don't think it would have felt right without knowing what happened to my village. But now… well, I'm the only one left from my home. Besides… Sasuke." Naruto grimaced, knowing that his friend would never be saved from the darkness now. "But I think I should honor my home's memory by wearing its crest on my forehead again."

He paused, looking back down from his forehead at Blake, "So, are we going to your home, now?"

She blinked, as if to focus on him, "Oh, uh- Kind of… we're headed to a port town nearby. We should be able to get there by the end of the week if we leave today."

"The- the end of the week? But- But it's only Tuesday… are we gonna walk for five days?"

Blake shrugged, stifling a laugh at his sudden loss of composure, "Yes, Naruto, we'll be walking for five days. It's not that big a deal. It's not like I'm asking you to walk all the way across Anima."

* * *

Ruby held up the map in front of herself, "So the next town is… uh-huh, uh-huh…" She lowered the map, "We're lost."

Jaune gave a small laugh, waving her off, "We're not lost. The next town is Shion. My family used to visit it all the time."

Ruby gave him an inquisitive look, "Oh yeah. Don't you have, like, four sisters?"

Jaune sighed to himself, and spoke quietly, "Uh, seven."

As Ruby giggled, Nora spoke up, "You know, that actually explains a lot."

Jaune turned to her after a moment, "Wait, what do you mean?"

Ruby cut him off, "So, what did you guys do there?"

"Oh, all sorts of stuff!" Jaune excitedly answered, as he pointed at the map in certain areas, "Over here is a great hiking trail, and over here is where we went camping all the time. I got my own tent because I was special." After a moment, he added on, "Also, so my sisters would stop braiding my hair."

Ruby gave a sly look, "Didn't like the look?"

Jaune proudly answered, "Yeah, they just kept doing pigtails, but personally, I think I'm more of a warrior's wolftail kind of guy."

Ruby spoke again after a moment of pause, "That's just a… ponytail."

Jaune shrugged, looking off, "I stand by what I said."

While Ruby and Jaune continued, Ren and Nora stopped, put off by something. Nora was the first to speak, "Uh, Guys…"

Ruby spoke as she looked up, "Huh?"

"What?" Jaune said nearly simultaneously, also looking up. Ruby lowered the map slightly as her attention was quickly drawn from it.

They were met with the sight of devastation. In several places, the road was burned and the road broken. Smoke was rising from multiple points in the village, and they could see a large building at the end of the road was falling apart. The lightposts were bent and broken, two of them lying flat on the ground. Nearby to them, there was a shattered watchtower, the top of it falling into itself. And, though they tried not to acknowledge it, there was a body lying near the entrance, and it wasn't moving.

Ruby dropped the map entirely, all four of them silently running into the village. As they ran, Nora slowed just a little, looking at the lifeless corpse as she passed it. Ren dropped his bag as he kept running. Ruby ran up to Jaune, followed by Nora, "There could be survivors!"

Ren had run ahead, and he called back, "Over here!" The rest of them followed after him, seeing the 'survivor' he was talking about. The man was still alive, but that seemed to be rapidly changing, judging by the blood flowing from a wound in the middle of his torso. Ren kneeled by his side and put his hand on his shoulder.

"A huntsman!" Ruby exclaimed, clearly horrified.

"What happened?" Jaune asked. "Who killed all these people?!"

The man coughed, a new little bit of red coating his hand, "Bandits." He coughed again, "The whole tribe. Then, with all the panic… Just hope-" he was cut off by a heavy fit of coughing, but he forced himself out of it, "Just hope those kids survived…"

"What kids? Ren questioned, seeming to realize the man's time was short.

"One of 'em-" Another cough, this time a generous amount of blood coming up. "He could teleport, appeared right in front of me, seemed-" Once again, he coughed up more blood than seemed healthy. "like good kids and fighters. Hope they…" His voice died alongside him, and his hand dropped to his side. Ren stood, turning away from the corpse, hands on his head.

Jaune, Ruby, and Nora turned way as well, as though thinking it was disrespectful or vile to speak in front of the body. Nora spoke first, "Should we… bury him?"

Ruby spoke next, about what he had said, "That sounds like Naruto's teammates. We should try to find them. They could help us."

Jaune shook his head, "Ruby… this guy looked like a trained huntsman. If he couldn't survive…" he trailed off, leaving Ruby to finish his thought mentally.

Ruby looked down, "But- But he even said it! He could have teleported away from danger!" Jaune closed his eyes.

"Ruby…"

Ren strode past them, "We should go. It's not safe here."

Nora followed him after a moment, while Ruby and Jaune just looked to the dead huntsman. Ren stopped suddenly, looking at the ground, his eyes widening. Nora stood next to him, and she followed his gaze. After only a moment, her eyes also widened, as she too recognized the print in the ground.

Jaune and Ruby moved on, with Ren and Nora joining them soon. Ruby still looked conflicted, like she wanted to search for, at the worst, the bodies of her friends. But she was still determined to think that they were alive. "Maybe they're still around here somewhere," she supposed. Jaune shook his again once again.

"Ruby, just… just keep going. If they were here, then they'll be long gone. Even if they did survive, then Troy probably teleported them miles away by now." Ruby looked away, upset at the thought. Truthfully, she wanted to see more friendly and familiar faces. It had been so long since she had seen her sister, or Naruto, or Weiss or Blake. She missed them, honestly.

Though none of them knew it, Nora's request to bury the huntsman was granted. A brown-robed figure stayed just long enough to give the man a warrior's burial, then continued their work of the last few weeks. That is, they followed along behind Team RNJR, tracking them across the continent of Anima.

* * *

Though Emerald was fearful of her duty, she still spoke for Cinder, telling the Queen everything that Cinder was croaking to her, "She says that… that he can most likely fly, because he broke through a window at the top of Beacon Tower." Emerald leaned down once again, then stood up after a moment, "And… and he made a clone of himself, and then created a shuriken out of Aura. After that, he threw the shuriken at her."

Salem gave Cinder a doubtful look, "Child, what you are telling me… is that this boy, this Faunus, has the powers of someone in a storybook. Those are the kinds of powers that only a legend would ever speak of. A very old legend, at that. I find it hard to believe, but very well. Perhaps Dr. Watts will be able to tell us more once he returns." She stood up, and strode to a window, gazing down at the Grimm-spawning landscape. "Until then… we shall begin your treatment."

Cinder shivered to herself, apparently knowing what this 'treatment' would entail. Salem came back to her seat at the head of her table. She looked up at Emerald, "You, child, may wait with your comrade." Emerald took her chance, and stood by the door with Mercury. Salem turned back to Cinder, "Do you feel it? Don't fight it, girl. It can sense your trepidation. You must make _it_ dread _you_."

A soft clicking sound drew Cinder's towards the door. From the blackness beyond the meeting hall, a jellyfish-like Grimm emerged, seeming to glide through the air towards Salem and Cinder. Emerald and Mercury backed away fearfully, pressing themselves against the door to stay as far from it as possible. It hovered its way over to Salem at the head of the table. When it reached her, Salem leaned closer to Cinder. "Cinder, I am going to ask you this one more time, and I expect a clear answer. Did you. Kill. Ozpin?"

Cinder opened her mouth multiple times, frustrated at her inability to speak. She held her arm up, about to call Emerald over to speak for her, when Salem angrily slammed both of her hands onto the table, eyes glowing as she spoke, "No!" Cinder lowered her arm in fear, while Salem leaned back slightly, "I want to hear you say it."

Cinder tried again, several raspy groans coming before, with a dry voice, she spoke, "Yes."

Salem studied at her for a long moment before speaking to the Grimm by her side, "Reinforce our numbers at Beacon. The relic _is_ there."

The Grimm slowly drew away. When it reached the door, Emerald and Mercury drew away from it just as they did before. Salem looked away from Cinder, holding her hand to her mouth in contemplation, before she spoke, seemingly to herself, "What are you planning?"

* * *

 **Finally, I get off my lazy ass and then sit back down to write another chapter of this… *internal sigh***

 **I was originally going to post this along with the rewrites of Chapter 16, 17, and 18, but 1. I haven't completely finished them yet, and 2. I feel that you guys have waited for this for long enough. And by long enough, I mean about two days more than you should have had to.**

 **Although- and fair warning here- you probably shouldn't expect one for at least two weeks. I haven't really shrugged off this damn Writer's Block. In other words, writing this chapter felt like a chore, and wasn't all that enjoyable. And when I don't enjoy writing whatever it is I'm writing, that's typically reflected in the quality of the chapter. I think this one's ok, but who can really say?**

 **That said, I have two very basic ideas for RWBYxNaruto crossovers, but I don't want to start two different stories right now. Maybe one day, but not now. Check my profile for the poll. That's right, this one's up to you guys.**

 **Until Chapter 22!**


	22. Chapter 22: Trek

Chapter 22: Trek

The tall bushes rustled only slightly as Troy and Melissa crawled through them, creeping up to the White Fang encampment. They were taking it as slowly as possible, lest they draw attention due to bushes shaking on their own, on this windless day. Melissa very carefully pulled her weapon from her back, looking through the scope to the camp. She scanned the side closest to them for several moments, shaking her head a moment later. Troy held in a growl, and they began to back away.

It had been nearly three days since they had run from Shion Village with their tails between their legs. They hadn't mentioned it, however, since they were more concerned with surmounting the next obstacle: freeing Diana from captivity. And at the moment, they were trying to find a way into the camp, but weren't having a terrific amount of luck with it. For one, there were few entrances along the high stone walls, and the ones that did exist were usually heavily guarded. They hadn't been able to make a camp nearby, because patrols were regularly sent out to secure the surrounding area against any humans or other threats, like Grimm.

As the sun was setting, by which time they were well over five hundred meters away, Troy stood again, and Melissa followed his lead. Troy sat down on an overturned tree trunk, hold his head in his hands. He sighed to himself, "We're never gonna get in there, are we?" Melissa sat down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll find a way. Maybe tomorrow I can fly over to and get a better view," she suggested. Troy, however, shook his head.

"They'd see you too quickly," he argued. "And besides, you wouldn't see anything new." The pair had, by now, scouted each side of the octagon encampment. And each time, their hopes had been dashed yet again by either a solid wall or a door with enough guards to stop a Goliath. They had even had a close call when a patrol had just barely passed them by, whilst they had hidden in the foliage. Luckily, they seemed to have avoided being spotted, at least for now. But Troy wasn't sure how long their luck would last, and he wanted to just get in and free Diana.

Teleporting in would be risky, because he had no idea what kind of company he would find when he reappeared. He might get lucky and end up in an area where no one went, or he might end up in the mess hall for the guards and other members of the organization. He had asked Melissa not to fly over at all, since they might have spot her if she did, and then shoot her out of the sky. No, they would have to find another, safer way in. Troy rubbed his forehead with his palms, "Maybe… what about the sewage system? They've got to have one, right?"

Melissa stared at him, "You're seriously saying we should go through a sewer than just trying to teleport into a corner somewhere inside?" Troy shook his head.

"I told you, there's too many ways that could go wrong. If we end up surrounded by terrorists like those people, I don't think we could really fight all of them off." He stared at the very distant encampment. From here, it look like a mere anthill.

"But we wouldn't have to. Couldn't we just teleport away?" Melissa debated.

Once again, Troy shook his head, "Then they would be on alert for any intruders. It would make it a lot more difficult."

Melissa sighed. This entire venture seemed to be turning south. First it was that village being attacked by bandits and Grimm. Now they were stuck outside of where they needed to get, and were only avoiding being caught by the barest sliver of luck. She looked up at the now-starry sky. "Why did you have to attack them, Diana?" she asked the air, as if it could answer her. Whatever the case, they needed to find a place to make camp for the night. If they stayed within the sightline of the Fang, there was a chance that they would be seen, however far away they were.

A short period of searching later, and they had found a collection of tree that were grown so close together that they almost formed a wall around them. It made a good place for a temporary camp. Melissa sat down next to Troy, "What do you think Naruto's doing?"

He gave her a sideways glance, "Why does it matter? He can't help us, can he? He's halfway across the world in Menagerie by now." His tone was just a little angry. No… it was bitter.

"I-I was just making conversation," Melissa replied. She got up and walked back over to her bedroll, where she laid down, staring back up at the skies above. She wasn't really thinking on anything, just laying back, staring up. Distracted _would_ be the word, but there was nothing to distract her. Eventually she closed her eyes, and though she didn't know when, she drifted off to restless sleep.

* * *

"Another day, another adventure!" Nora cheered, energized from the proper sleep Team RNJR had been able to achieve in the inn back in Higanbana, the town they had just left behind. Her cheerfulness was reflected in the attitudes of the rest of her teammates, as well. Jaune was carrying the map, studying it with his brow raised as though in dismay.

Ruby asked, "What's on the agenda today?"

"Walking," Jaune answered.

"With a side of?" Nora queried.

"Walking," Ren echoed.

Ruby sighed, "Haven is a lot farther away than I thought…"

"Ruby…" Ren began, walking up next to her. "How long did you think this journey was going to take?"

The small girl threw her arms up in frustration, "I don't know! I grew up in a small area; I've never been this far from home."

She walked up next to Jaune, who returned the favor of Ren echoing him earlier, "Right, but… how long?"

Ruby hesitated, "Maybe like… two… weeks?"

Jaune quickly pulled the map away from his face and exclaimed, "What?!"

"Okay, fine! Three or something!" Ruby responded. "Look… whatever." She paused, glancing up for a second before doing a double take. "Hey… what's that?" 'That' was a walled village, though the buildings looked odd from their distance. Nora jumped up on the fence next to them and put her hands over her eyes.

"That's strange," Jaune remarked, glancing up and down from his map. "I didn't think we'd be hitting another village for a few days."

"Are those buildings…" Nora began. "Damaged?"

There was a brief pause as they processed what Nora had just said, before Jaune broke the silence, "We should search for survivors!" He dropped the map, and they took off running towards the town. Nora jumped up on the walls while the other three ran through the entrance. They glanced around, but there were no bodies, no people at all, in fact. And on closer examination, the buildings weren't actually damaged. Or rather, they didn't look damaged. They looked like they were simply never completed at all, like a construction project that was abandoned.

"Hey, I think I found something!" Nora yelled out, now further down the road. They all ran up to see. She brushed aside some bushes, reading the sign. "Oniyuri?" She stood up, placing her hands on her hips. "I've never heard of it."

"Me neither," Jaune added.

"I have," Ren sighed. The others turned to stare at him. "You might think of it as… Anima's Mountain Glenn… had it never been completed. Years ago, the richest members of Mistral were… unhappy with how the kingdom was being run. Frustrated with the council, they pooled their resources together to build a city, with their own laws. They hoped that one day, it could maybe even become its own kingdom." He paused, turning away. "Many thought it would be the future." He walked to the side of the road, "I know my parents did…"

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

Ren sighed, rubbing away some of the settled dust on the small stone railing, revealing claw marks from some time ago, "What always happens…"

"Grimm…" Jaune finished. Ren clenched his fists.

"Not just any one."

Ruby glanced at her friends, then back to Ren, "One…?"

A flock of ravens, as if they were trying to be dramatic, flew up from the forest outside the walls, and over the town. Jaune began to walk away, "C'mon. Let's just get through here. This place gives me the creeps."

They kept on through the town, with Ren taking the lead. Suddenly, when they had just passed a mossy fountain, he held up his hand, telling them to stop. He closed his eyes, focusing on a faint sound. He lowered his arm to his pistol. His teammates drew their own weapons, looking around. Ren's eyes shot open just as a figure leapt over a nearby building. He dropped to he ground a short distance away, sliding back and extending bladed bracers as he did so. He let out a, "Hah!" like he wanted to fight, but didn't give them even a moment to react.

* * *

Naruto blinked, still staring up at the sky. While he questioned the mentality of taking another boat after what had happened with the last one, he also didn't want to walk across an entire ocean to get to Blake's home. So, he didn't voice his concerns when Blake said they would take the first boat to Menagerie.

They had been on said boat for nearly a week now. As it turned out, they had actually crashed somewhere along the northern coast of Anima, and by now they were nearing Menagerie. Naruto honestly couldn't wait to see the home of the Faunus here on Remnant. Blake seemed to detest the idea, but he liked the idea of a place where people who were treated as less than human could live without fear. Perhaps it was because of his own life, what he had been through in his childhood. Last he had heard, they would be docked within two days. And that had been several hours ago.

A shadow blocked out his view of the sun, standing between himself and the ball of fire. "There you are!" it spoke. He sat up, avoiding slamming his head into Blake when he did. "I was just talking to the captain, and he said that we'll be in Menagerie in a few hours, sooner than he expected."

"That's great! So we'll be there before night?" Naruto asked, more eager to see it than he thought.

Blake shrugged, "I think so. It's only noon, so probably."

Naruto stood up, "So, what do we do until then?"

Blake raised an eyebrow at him, "Well, I know what I'd suggest, but you'd probably give me a blank look, so what were you thinking?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment, "I don't know. What do you do on a cruise?"

"Usually they have things around the ship to do. I know that there's a hot tub and pool on the other side of the ship. And I think that they have a theater somewhere onboard."

"A theater? You mean like a movie theater?" Naruto asked. Blake nodded slowly.

"What else would I mean?"

"I dunno. We didn't really have movies back home. We just kind of trained and went on missions. And sometimes we would go to hot springs and stuff. I know Baa-chan liked gambling, too."

"Baa-chan? Who was that?"

"Granny Tsunade. She became the Hokage after Ji-chan died fighting the snake."

"How do you keep doing that? You answer one question, and then I've got two more to ask," Blake remarked. Naruto grinned, shrugging.

" **Brat, I need to talk to you."**

' _You couldn't have done this earlier? When I was alone?"_

" **It's important."**

Naruto blinked, seeing Blake staring at him. "What?"

"Nothing, just… never mind." She turned and began to walk away. "I'll see you later, when we get to Menagerie."

Naruto watched her for another moment before he entered his mind, "What do you want, Kurama?"

 **It's about that thing I was sensing before. Take just a little of my chakra for a moment, and you'll see. It's stronger here, and it feels a little different."**

"You sound… nervous, almost."

The fox scoffed, **"Brat, I am older than your entire civilization. I was created long before mankind ever began to use chakra as a weapon, and I am the strongest of the Bijū. There is nothing in existence, especially not in this world, that can make me 'nervous.'"**

"Alright… give me just a little." Naruto felt a sudden minor influx of power as the fox's chakra seeped through the cage and into him. He could see his reflection in the water along the ground, and the red eyes that came with it. For just a moment, he left his mind, and he felt what the fox was talking about. Deep beneath them, so far down that it was undoubtedly halfway to the center of the earth, there was a mass of energy. It didn't feel like Aura, but it also didn't quite feel like chakra. Naruto frowned, wondering what it could have been. And Kurama had said that it was different from before, back on the beach almost two weeks ago.

He reentered his mind, "What the hell is that?"

" **I'm not entirely sure, but I have an idea. But that's not for you to know. I just need you to know it was there, in case it's not what I think and it attacks. But, like the other one, this one seems dormant. Or… asleep might be a better word."**

"Asleep? Attack? What is it, Kurama?" Before he got an answer, he felt himself be forced out of his mind, and found himself still standing on the front of the ship. Kurama's chakra had receded, as well. So he couldn't sense the thing anymore. Just a moment later, he was searching for it with Sage Mode, but he supposed it was way to far away for even Sage Mode to sense.

He left Sage Mode, sitting back down on his chair. He laid back, hands behind his head, wondering what the hell that energy could have been. It dawned on him that it might have just felt different because he wasn't used to sensing things with Kurama's power. He mentally nodded, deciding that that must have been it.

For a while, he laid there, staring up, until a loud horn blared all across the ship. Immediately, he sat bolt upright, thinking it was an attack. A moment later, he realized that it was probably just the signal that they were close to Menagerie. He stood up, and gazed out in front of them, and saw an expansive island in the far distance. However, between that island and the boat, there were massive waves, most likely caused when the giant sea monster-looking Grimm in front of them had reared up.

Naruto smacked his forehead, realizing that he had probably drawn it here when he used the fox's chakra. He entered Sage Mode and readied himself to fight. Blake dropped next to him, staring up at the Grimm. "Where did this come from?" she questioned rhetorically. Naruto shrugged. He crouched, bending his knees as he prepared to jump. Blake ran forward, shooting at it several times. It evaded each bullet with its long, thin body. It snapped forwards at her, closing its jaws around where she had been just before her clone allowed her to dodge. Naruto launched himself upwards like a rocket, soaring high above the Grimm. He grinned, turning his body towards it and creating a clone just above his feet. He pointed his sword at it, hurtling off of his clones feet.

He shot down, fast as sound, thanks to gravity and his own leg strength, and pierced right through the bony armor and down through its skull. He smirked, thinking it was dead, when it began flailing, trying to shake him off. He pulled his chokutō out of it and jumped off of the wounded creature. He landed next to Blake, who was crouching behind the railing. "Well, that didn't go as well as I thought it would," he remarked. Blake rolled her eyes, turning her attention to the Grimm.

"How did that not kill it?" she questioned, as if he knew. "I'll distract it. This time… cut off its head."

Naruto nodded, running off to the side while Blake shot at it as she retreated backwards. Foolishly, the Grimm lunged at her again, only for Naruto to slam into its side, pinning it to the side of the ship with his sword. He pulled out two kunai, and went to work on it while it thrashed around, generally damaging everything. Nothing major, though. Not this time. Within a few moments, the body began to dissipate, returning to dust. He picked up his blade, sheathing it. Blake walked up next to him, "Aren't we a little close to Menagerie for this thing?"

Naruto shrugged, not wanting to tell her why it had probably shown up. After all, in her mind the fox was probably just a monster, especially since the red-eyes were just the beginning of the fox taking over his body.

The boat began to move again, chugging along to the home of the Faunus. Naruto ran to the front of the boat like an excited child whose mother told him that they almost to the candy store. Perhaps he was more excited for this than he had thought. Blake laughed at his energy, as it reminded her of her team leader. "I should tell you, Naruto… my parents might not like you. I know my dad is… well, he's protective of his family. I don't know about my mom, though."

Naruto grinned, "That's fine. I'll probably just talk them to death until they like me." Blake chuckled.

"You do have a certain way with words…" she joked.

The boat docked only a minute later, and Blake and Naruto were on the shore soon enough. Naruto looked around, trying to figure out what to focus on. There were Faunus everywhere, something he hadn't really seen at all. "I've never seen this many Faunus before!" he exclaimed, drawing another snicker from Blake.

* * *

Dr. Watts was frustrated. He hadn't been able to find any village called Konohagakure on his scroll, so he had assumed that it just wasn't plotted on the simple map that the scroll had. And so, he used his resources, in this case an extensive library that had been collected over the Queen's entire life. If it wasn't in here, it wasn't likely that he would ever find it on a map.

Speaking of the Queen, she had been most pleased that Ozpin had so foolishly accumulated all of the data on the boy. She was still doubtful of Cinder's story when Watts had returned, something that seemed to change as soon as he had laid out his findings for her.

While he searched, he also looked into the data he had collected from Beacon. First and foremost, the boy's abilities. Ozpin had rated each category, seemingly on a scale of one to ten. Watts didn't know what kind of comparison Ozpin was making, however, so he wasn't sure what exactly each one meant exactly. For example, he had given the boy an eight for speed. Perhaps he was comparing him to himself? Watts shook his head, telling himself that he would come back to it later.

Next, he looked at the folder labeled 'No Aura'. This one in particular baffled him. It held documentation on paper and in video. According to Ozpin, he wasn't able to sense any Aura whatsoever from the boy, despite what he could do. The late headmaster had listed his own theories on why it was so, with a few notes that were apparently from the boy himself, including one about how he had an additional Semblance forced on to him. The video showed the boy creating two different Aura techniques, one being a sphere and the other being a shuriken. The boy thrust the orb, but threw the shuriken. Watts leaned in, watching that part again. Aura was supposed to dissipate the moment it left contact with the body, meaning it should have been completely impossible to throw it. Let alone the fact that the boy apparently had no Aura at all.

Watts moved on, adding another mystery to the pile of two, so far. Next up was this 'Kyūbi' that Ozpin had brought up once in the 'No Aura' files. The more Watts read into this one, the more confused he got. According to the boy himself, he had an ability where he could tap into some of his animalistic traits even further, increasing his speed and power but making him almost feral. Ozpin had made several notes, including talking about 'seals', whatever that was supposed to mean, and something called a 'Hokage.' The 'Kyūbi' itself was described as Ozpin as a demon, but not a Grimm. Watts furrowed his brow. That sounded like something Salem would know about. The rather bare description of it was that it was a giant fox, capable of wiping out entire Kingdoms without a second thought. Now Watts knew that Salem would want to hear about this.

He studied the strange symbols on the strange book he had picked up, as well. They looked like Old Mistrali lettering, but some of the key features of the Mistrali language were missing from them, meaning it was most likely either an older version or just completely unconnected. He set it aside, intending to run it through an automatic translator later on. Perhaps then he would find out what sort of book it was. Most likely, it wasn't too important, since it would probably just end up being some sort of storybook.

But for now, he had found the largest, most detailed map in the entire collection, at least of Sanus, where Ozpin seemed to think the village was located. He also brought several books on Sanus over with him, hoping they could be of use. Between the two, the map and the books, he hoped to find the 'Konohagakure' within the day, at least.

The only problem was, the only mentions of anything even close to Konohagakure were in sections detailing towns that Vale or Vacuo had decimated or annexed on Anima throughout history. They were all from over a hundred years ago, as well. The latest one had been a hundred-twenty-four years ago, while the earliest had happened so long ago that it didn't have a date. Watts grew increasingly frustrated as he searched, eventually coming to the conclusion that, despite what Ozpin said, the boy's hometown wasn't on Sanus.

Perhaps he would have better luck looking for it on Anima.

* * *

 **Another chapter done, another couple of progressions.**

 **Funnily enough, I actually got so into writing this chapter that I was able to do it all in one night. Now, if ya don't mind, I'm going to sleep, now that it's (according to my computer's clock as I'm writing this) 4:45:53.**

 **And so, the winner of the poll for which character would crossover with RWBY is...**

 **Neither!**

 **Which is fine, since I apparently have a new story anyway. It's called Unprepared, starring Hashirama Senju, the man who somehow didn't have a story yet, leastways in this particular crossover.**

 **Until Chapter 23!**


	23. Chapter 23: Nowhere

**Alright guys, I just realized something and it's really messing with me. Throughout all of Naruto, parts 1 and 2, I don't think any character but Jiraiya laughs, ever. I mean, maybe Hidan, but that's more maniacal than a humored laugh.**

 **Well, this will be a chapter divided between two of the current plotlines: Watts and Naruto. Enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 23: Nowhere

"So, where do you live, anyway? You said your dad was the chief or something, right?" Naruto asked, following behind Blake as she made her way through the streets. There was a certain hesitation in her steps, like she wasn't looking forward to what Naruto understood would be an awkward reunion with her parents. It made sense, of course.

In Blake's mind, however, she was running through all the different reactions her parents might have to Naruto. More specifically, all the reactions they might have to her bringing a boy home with her. Inwardly, she wished that he at least had dressed formally. As it ws, she was bringing with her a well-built young man who coincidentally didn't wear a shirt. So yeah, she felt it might be a little awkward. Of course, there was also that little… display… she had put on last time she had seen them, complete with unjustified anger on her part. All in all, she was both looking forward to and dreading seeing her parents again.

They stood at the top of a large hill, with a single, main road leading down into the valley below, ending at an impressive house. The road was lined with all sorts of buildings from every range of grandeur and pricing. Naruto looked back and forth between them all, soaking it all in. To him, with the trees and the buildings mixing together, it looked a lot like Konoha used to. He smiled, remembering once more all the good times he had had. Blake waved her hand in front of his face, "Naruto? Focus."

He blinked once and turned to face her, "Sorry, what?"

"You had this far-away look in your eyes all of a sudden," Blake answered, turning back to face the road before them. "So… ready to go?" Naruto nodded, grin back on his face. Blake took a deep breath of trepidation, and began the long descent into the valley, towards the grand house at the end of the road. With how far it was, it took them almost a half hour to reach it.

Naruto stared at the door, as Blake hesitated at the knocker. He walked up next to her, "Everything alright, Blake?"

"Yeah, just… well, it's like I told you. We didn't really part on the best terms."

"Ah, come on, Blake. They're your family. You've got nothing to worry about." Naruto reached up and grabbed the knocker, slamming it once. A huge boom echoed throughout the inside of the house, and Naruto stepped back. "Wow, that was… loud. Why was it-"

Before he could finish, the door on the left pulled open, and a woman's head poked out from behind it. Much like Blake, black cat ears adorned her head, but hers were pierced with gold earrings. Furthermore, the purple marks over her eyes were far more noticeable. She stared for a moment before he mouth dropped, and the door was pushed fully open, "Blake?" Without a moment's hesitation, she rushed forward and embraced her daughter, which Blake reciprocated after a moment of surprise.

Naruto heard another voice echo from within the household, "Kali? Who's there?" He looked inside, seeing the approaching form of a man. A very large man, at that, with black hair and a beard framing his face, and a tuft of hair visible on his chest through the regal purple cloak he wore. He paused for a moment before he realized that his daughter had come home. "Blake?" he asked in disbelief.

"Hey, dad," she answered awkwardly, raising a hand. He seemed to glance at Naruto out of the corner of his eye, but only for a moment before he ushered them inside.

"Come in, have tea," he said. As Naruto passed him, he could practically feel the man's eyes on the back of his neck. Naruto followed Blake and her mother to a spacious, circular room with a table in the middle, and four blue seats around it on the floor.

Kali Belladonna directed them to sit while she got the tea, whilst Blake's father sat across from his daughter, leaving Naruto to sit between them, feeling a little awkward now that he was here. "So… uh… Nice to meet you. My name is Naruto," he began awkwardly. The large man gave him a disapproving look. "I… well, I'm a friend of Blake's."

"Yes, I assumed so. And how _exactly_ do you know my daughter?" he asked, seeming to barely keep a growl out of his tone.

"Dad!" Blake objected. Her dad frowned.

"Sorry, Blake." Kali reentered with tea, complete with four cups.

"Alright, here you are," she said as she put a cup in front of each of them. She sat down across from Naruto. She looked him up and down for a moment, getting a sly grin and leaning over to her daughter, "Blake, I never thought you were a dog person."

Blake's ears curled up on themselves, "Mom!" Kali laughed, sitting back up. Blake shook her head just a little. "So… did you guys hear what happened to Beacon?" Immediately, both of her parent's faces fell. "Oh."

"We got the news almost a month ago," her dad answered. "Were you ok?" Blake nodded.

"I had Naruto to back me up," she answered, gesturing to the blond. He grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "Besides, there wasn't anything we couldn't handle." None of them noticed Naruto's grin disappearing, his hand returning to his side.

"I see…" Ghira, Blake's dad, turned to face Naruto. "So, you helped my daughter?"

"Uh, yes, sir," Naruto answered, almost feeling like he should salute or something. "There was a guy, Adam or something, who I helped her fight."

"Adam?" Ghira repeated, turning back to Blake. "What was Taurus doing there, and why were you fighting against him?" Blake frowned.

"Because he attacked Beacon along with all of the others."

"All of _what_ others?" he asked with a dangerous tone. Blake glanced at Naruto.

"All of-" Suddenly, the loud knocker on the front door sounded again, cutting off Blake.

Ghira shook his head, "Damn it, I forgot about the meeting." He shook his head again, standing up. "I'll be back." He left the room, while Naruto looked back and forth from him to Kali, wondering what he was talking about.

"Is everything alright?" Blake asked. Kali nodded.

"It's just been hard dealing with them lately."

"Dealing with who?" Blake asked. Naruto glanced back towards the door, not liking the sound of whatever this was.

Kali answered as though it ws obvious, "The White Fang."

Blake shot to her feet, while Naruto was out of the room in an instant, "What?!" Blake followed behind Naruto a moment later.

Naruto leapt over Ghira, landing between him and the two Faunus who seemed to be in some sort of uniform. "What are you people doing here?!" he questioned angrily. Something about how the Fang had made Blake feel had sparked an intense dislike of them in Naruto's mind. He felt a firm hand on his shoulder, and Ghira pulled him away from them.

"What do you think you're doing, boy?" he growled. The two White Fang Faunus gave him an interested look. Naruto pulled Ghira's hand off of his shoulder.

"I want to know why the White Fang is at your house," he answered, calmer now than a moment ago. "Especially after what happened at Beacon." Blake ran up behind him, a scowl on her face directed towards the two at the door. They bowed to her.

"Ms. Belladonna," one began. "We had no idea you'd returned." Ghira held up his hand.

"Quiet. Boy, what do you mean?" Ghira asked.

Blake answered for him, "The White Fang was at the Fall of Beacon. They attacked innocent people and released Grimm into the school." The four who hadn't been there studied her for a moment, before Ghira turned to face the two White Fang members.

"Is this true?" his voice once gain had a dangerous edge to it. The two bowed as though in remorse.

"Sadly, Your Grace, it is" the one with the wolf tail, Corsac, answered.

Blake scowled again, but Naruto cut her off before she could speak, "Don't try to-"

Ghira held up his arm, almost yelling, "That's ENOUGH!" He scowled at the blond, who ignored him and fixed on the Albain brothers with a glare. Ghira turned back to face them. "Explain yourselves."

"Though it pains us to admit, it has become apparent that the Vale Branch of the White Fang is no longer operating under orders of High Leader Khan," Corsac explained. "Rather, they've elected to follow the rule of one Adam Taurus. I believe you're all familiar with the young adept and his… extreme philosophies."

Blake growled again, while Naruto held his silence this time. Ghira spoke, "And this is _completely_ confined to the Vale branch, is it?"

Corsac answered, "We understand is you bear any skepticism towards these claims. The White Fang's tactics are admittedly more… aggressive, since you stepped down as High Leader, and became chieftain of Menagerie.

"But this… this is no way to make our message heard."

Fennec took over, "We have ample documentation from the council meeting, as well as several strategies to apprehend and punish these strays if you would care to review them."

"I will," Ghira replied. "But another day. I'd like some time to reconnect with my daughter." He gestured to the girl.

"But of course, Your Grace," Corsac said.

"We completely understand," Fennec added, before facing Blake. "It was a pleasure to see you again, young Blake, as well as your… friend." He eyed Naruto. Naruto studied him. These guys were… off. Something about them. And yet, they were only lying about something, not everything. Even so, he couldn't guess what. Only two kinds of people could lie this well: Shinobi and Diplomats. And they were no ninja. Naruto guessed that they were probably quite practiced.

The conversation ended just as Naruto exited his thoughts, with Ghira stepping in front of the door, "Goodbye, gentlemen." He slammed the door shut, and turned to face the two students behind him. "I don't know who you think you are, boy," he addressed Naruto. "But I recommend you not do something like that again."

"Of course not…" Naruto answered, much calmer now that they were gone. "Sorry, I just don't like murderers."

Ghira scowled again, "Now, Blake, what happened with Taurus at Beacon?" The only reason I'm still allowing this boy to stay is because you said he helped you. How did he do that?"

Blake took a breath, "I came across Adam while we were chasing an Alpha. Just as Adam was about to attack, Naruto crashed through the roof while he killed the Alpha, landing between me and Adam." Ghira raised an eyebrow at Naruto. "After that, he had a quick exchange with Adam. We took off afterwards."

"So, you may have well saved my daughter's life?" Ghira summed up. "I don't think she'll argue against me when I say that she is certainly no match for Taurus." Blake looked away, but nodded anyway. "I'm grateful to you. But that doesn't mean I have to like you, young man."

Neither of the men heard Kali lean over to Blake and say, "He's a little odd, isn't he?"

* * *

Watts shook his head again, this time throwing the book at the wall. He had been studying this map for three days- THREE DAYS- now, and he still felt no closer to finding this boy's home. There were simply too many villages from throughout history called Konohagakure. But even still, the boy couldn't be from any of them. Even still, he wanted to know why the boy _said_ he was from one of them, as well as which one he said he was from. He once again distracted himself by reading the book that had been translated from a language that the machine had called 'Ancient'. Apparently, it was the basis for the Old Mistrali language.

The book itself was fascinating, if a little fairytale. It was about a ninja who wanted to bring peace to his entire world. The main theme seemed to be that the hero never gave up on his goals, no matter how many people told him it was impossible. Watts scoffed at that, but he read on anyways. His hope was that somewhere in this book, it would tell him why the hell it was written in a language that had died out before civilization had even begun.

This was his second time through, however. In the back of the book, there had been a drawing of who Watts assumed was the author, a white haired man with a big smile and red marks on his face. The man was named 'Jiraiya', according to the translation machine. According to his little author's note at the end of the book, the entire thing was based on his own experiences as a 'Shinobi', which seemed to be what he called a Huntsman.

And the oddest thing about the book? It was the name of the main character, which matched Watts' quarry. For some reason, the main character was named Naruto, just like the boy he was hunting. The only answer he could think of was that the boy was named after the character.

In the end, Watts could only boil down the book to two things, neither of which were terrifically likely: The boy had the book simply because the main character shared his name, or he was given it by his parents, or something to that effect. The other possibility, which was even less likely, was that the boy could _read_ it, despite how ol the text was. Watts was curious who this 'Jiraiya' was, that he would write a book that no one could read.

But there was one thing about it that _really_ stuck in Watts' mind. Despite everything that disproved it, the boy had to be able to read the book. Either that, or… well, Watts wasn't sure. But why did he have to be able to read it? Because the author, Jiraiya, had listed his hometown as a village named Konohagakure, just like the boy. And he had given Watts a clue right alongside it, which he only noticed this time around. Next to the word Konohagakure, there was a slash. And on the other side of the slash, it said Konoha.

Which would mean that Watts might be able to drastically narrow down where he needed to look to find this village. If he marked the villages named Konohagakure from throughout history on a map of Remnant, then marked the villages named Konoha on that same map… well, only the ones that had had both names would be marked twice, wouldn't they?

Watts gave a massive sigh of relief, as he leaned back and stared at the ceiling. It seemed as though his search would soon be over.

* * *

Naruto sat cross-legged in the middle of the desert, not moving an inch. It had been two days since they had arrived here, and Blake seemed to be enjoying the company of her family. Well, he mother anyway. Her dad had been working the whole time, though Kali had told Blake several times to go and talk to him anyway.

But Naruto wasn't worried about her, not now that she was with family. So now, he could focus on his own form of work. And that 'work' was training himself in Sage Mode. He wanted to be able to enter and exit Sage Mode at will, and at the drop of a hat. He was close, of that there was no doubt. It only took him about four seconds to gather the right amount of Natural Energy. He wanted it to take less than two.

That was step one of his training. Step one of three. Step two was staying in Sage Mode for longer. He was up to about ten minutes by now, but he wanted to get it to twenty, at least. As for step three… well, he'd get to it eventually.

He stood, back in Sage Mode. He extended his arm, staring down at it. In his palm, he began to form a Rasenshuriken, finding it was incredibly easy after the Fall of Beacon. He remembered how he had accidentally created one, desperately throwing it to try and save Pyrrha. He scowled at himself, angry that he had been too weak to save a friend. Never again, he had decided long ago, when Sasuke had fallen on the bridge. But he had failed himself.

The Rasenshuriken finished forming, and he held it over his head. He roared, throwing it at the cliff about a hundred yards away, carving into it nearly thirty feet. He closed his eyes, dropping his Sage Mode and sitting back down. A moment later, he stood again, wanting to try something that he had thought up a long time ago, back one day in Port's class. He made an Ōdama Rasengan in his right hand, and began to make normal Rasengans one by one in his left. He tried to get the normal one to orbit around the larger orb. After nearly ten minutes, he finally got it, just as his Sage chakra ran out, and he dropped back to his base form, causing the Ōdama Rasengan to collapse in on itself.

He sat back down, regathering Natural Energy. Just then, he heard a voice behind himself, "That was an interesting usage of Aura, I must say." He scowled, recognizing the voice. He stood, turning to face one Fennec Albain.

"What do you want, and where's your comrade?" Naruto questioned.

"My brother? He has other business to attend to, which he may take care of on his own. I came to greet you. I feel that you may have misunderstood our intentions the other day when we came to the Belladonna household."

"And what were your intentions?"

"We merely came to inform His Grace that the Vale Branch was operating outside of our sanctions. We are a peaceful group, you must know."

"And why are you here now?"

"As I said, I came simply to greet you, as well as ask your name."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"Indeed? I have one, final piece of business to discuss with you, Mr. Uzumaki," Fennec paused, his ears twitched atop his head. "I have been authorized to offer you a place amongst the White Fang's ranks here on Menagerie."

Naruto stopped. The offer wasn't one he would ever even consider, not after everything that had happened, but it was odd that it would be given. "Why? Why am I getting this offer?"

"Make no mistake, it does not take an offer to be allow to join the White Fang. All Faunus are welcome. But we have specifically requested you to join us."

"Sorry, but no."

Fennec bowed his head, "I see. I am saddened to hear that. It would have been most welcoming to have another friend of Ms. Belladonna's among our ranks. She was one of our best, before young Taurus corrupted her to his cause. Though, it is delightful to see she has realized the error of his ways."

"Goodbye," Naruto said, sitting back down. He reentered Sage Mode, feeling Fennec leave, headed towards another nearby Aura, which he assumed was just his brother. Creepy guys.

Still, though… an invitation to the Fang.

" **Don't be fooled, brat. You know as well as I do that they're lying."**

' _Yeah, I know. Still, it would've been a good way to spy on them._

" **After all this time, now you start thinking like a shinobi?"**

' _Yeah.'_

* * *

 **So, I noticed that a lot of people were looking forward to Naruto meeting Blake's parents, though I have no idea why. But to all of you, do bear in mind that this isn't the only time you'll see him interact with them.**

 **Until Chapter 24!**


	24. Chapter 24: Once More With Feeling

**Alright, quick word to the guest saying that Naruto doesn't need to use Sage Mode for everything: Of course he doesn't. He's a powerful shinobi in his own right, and most, if not all Grimm are no match for him. That said, he's practicing Sage Mode. I had assumed that that was obvious. He doesn't** _ **need**_ **to use it, he** _ **wants**_ **to. Besides, he always goes above and beyond to protect people.**

 **Also, yes, this update is here even though I said it wouldn't be. I've really been in the mood to type recently, and I plan to milk it to its fullest. So who knows? You might get another four chapter from me in the next week or so. Don't count on it, though. Maybe only two more, counting this one.**

 **Ah, two updates in two days. I'm spoiling you guys with this one.**

 **Also, yes, it's another chapter of just Naruto and Watts.**

* * *

Chapter 24: Once More With Feeling

Naruto ground his hand into the wall, shattering the outermost layer of it with sheer force, and grinding his way deeper into it with little effort. The Rasengan faded away, and he was left punching into a deep hole in a cliff. He pulled his hand out, Sage Mode healing any nicks from the rocks.

He sighed, exiting Sage Mode as he walked away from the cliff face. "Still no progress," he said to himself. Blake had said that they would be taking on the White Fang after she was done here, so he wanted to be ready. That said, he had been training all day, and he felt that he could take a break to actually meet her family beyond the awkward encounter with the Albain brothers.

So that's what he did. He left the desert behind, headed towards the grand estate of the Belladonna family. Even from here, he could see the twinkling lights of a town during twilight. It was an oddly satisfying sight. Even though humanity had oppressed them to the point of once almost forcing them to this island, they still made it a home, not a reminder of darker times.

It didn't take long for Naruto to return to the large house, but by the time he was back, the sun had set completely. It was dark when he opened the door and strode inside, removing his shoes immediately from a habit still ingrained in his brain. He looked around the entrance room, not really noticing until now how bare it was. There just wasn't much in it.

He walked around the hallways for a few minutes, trying to find anyone. He walked past the door into the kitchen, then poked his head back around when he saw Kali setting up a tray of… tea, maybe? Regardless, he entered the kitchen, "Hey, Mrs. Belladonna."

She jumped a little at his sudden appearance, but turned to him with a polite smile, "Hello, Naruto. You've been out awhile."

He rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, I was getting some training in."

"Yes, I can smell that."

He grinned sheepishly, "Oh, uh… heh heh… Do you guys have a bath or a shower or something I could use to wash up?"

Kali shook her head, "Down the hall, fourth door on the left. I'll see if we have any spare clothes for you."

"Thanks," Naruto backed out of the room, turning towards the direction she had pointed. "Right, fourth door."

Several minutes later, Naruto emerged from the shower wrapped in a towel. He looked up and down the hallway, wondering where Kali might have been. He didn't particularly want to go wandering around someone else's house in just a towel if he could help it. He didn't see anyone, though, so he retreated back through the door. He glanced at the clothes on the rack next to him, deciding that he could get away with wearing just his pants.

A minute later, Naruto exited once more, this time with actual pants on. He wasn't sure what he was meant to do with his haori, so he just left it on the rack. He made his way down the hallway, looking for Kali, to find out if she had found any clothing he would be able to borrow.

Eventually, he found her entering the house, bag in hand. When she saw him, she held it up, "Sorry, but I couldn't find anything here, so I had to make a quick run to the market to find something." She set it down on the table. "Now, I know it might seem strange, but trust me, it's just an Old Mistrali style of clothing. It's the only thing I could find quickly."

Naruto picked up the bag, a little humored by the fact that she had apparently bought a red kimono. Even better, it was in a casual style, much like his old orange one that he left at Beacon. Kali had a sheepish look on her face when he gave a hearty laugh. "You… don't think it's weird I gave you a dress?"

He shook his head, a grin still adorning his face, "Of course not! It's just a kimono."

Kali frowned, "I didn't know that you would've known what these were, being from Vale and all."

Naruto shook his head, "I'm not from Vale. I'm from a place called Konohagakure, and we had kimonos as formal clothing. Although, I never really wore one back then."

"Oh, really? That's kind of funny, isn't it?" Kali supposed. "That I ended up getting something appropriate for you?"

Naruto nodded, "Right, let me just go put this on real quick."

Another few minutes later, and Naruto returned, wearing the deep red kimono. It was in the exact same style as his old one, right down to length. Kali looked him up and down, "It's been a while since I've actually seen anyone wear one of those. I never understood why it never caught on with people in other parts of the world."

Naruto shrugged, "Maybe they're just weird."

"So, why were you training, anyway?"

He shrugged again, "I just wanted to be ready for when we go after the Fang."

"What?" Kali questioned. "When you go after them? Why would you do that?"

"Well, you heard what they did. Blake… well, she wanted my help taking them down after what they did at Beacon. She… uh, well, she kind of takes it personally."

"Oh, my."

"So, um… Has she said anything about Beacon since we got here?" Naruto asked.

Kali smirked, "Well, she did mention a 'handsome blond idiot', but that couldn't have been you, could it?"

"Um…"

"I'm just teasing you. So, were you on her team?"

"Oh, no. She was on a team with three other girls. One was Ruby Rose, another was Yang Xiao Long, and the last one was… um, the last one was Weiss Schnee."

Immediately, not that he hadn't expected it, Kali's eyes narrowed. Weiss was right, the Schnee name really was tainted. "Did she say anything about my girl?"

"No, no. Weiss isn't racist like her dad is. She's actually pretty nice."

"Good. If she… Never mind. So, what was your team, then?"

"Oh, mine was Team MDNT. There was me, Melissa Mikeham, Troy Davores, and Diana Grout."

Kali glanced down the hallway, leaning in afterwards, "Does Blake still have that… book?"

Naruto cocked his head, "What book?"

"You know, that… book." Kali sighed. "Ninjas of Love?"

"Ninjas of what?" Naruto laughed.

Kali rolled her eyes, "Ninjas of Love. It's one of her… favorite books."

"What's it about?"

Kali's face, for some reason that Naruto didn't understand, was red as a tomato. "It's… well, it's like this…"

One very confusing and embarrassed conversation later, Naruto was nodding his head with all the seriousness he had. After all, three years with Jiraiya hadn't just trained his body. He'd heard it all by now. "Huh. That actually reminds me a lot of some books my old teacher used to write."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He was always working on it, right up until he died. Hell, he even used it to send me a secret message one time. I never got to use it, though…"

* * *

Watts smirked, at long last. It may have taken over three weeks, but he had finally pinpointed the exact location of every village that shared the names Konoha and Konohagakure. In total, it amounted to four different villages. The only shame was that none of them still existed, nor had they for over a hundred years. Regardless, he might solve a few mysteries if he found the right one.

But before he did, he wanted to finish his research into these other topics that Ozpin had labelled. Specifically, the one about the giant fox creature and the one about the 'false god' that he had mentioned.

First, this giant fox. Now, throughout all of history, Watts had noted, there were mentions of gigantic creatures, but a fox was never mentioned, not once. And besides, all of the others, whenever they appeared, had always caused or heralded massive natural disasters. This fox didn't seem to fit that description, since all it had done when it showed up was kill one man, according to what Ozpin had written.

Regardless of that, Watts wanted to know what the hell it had to do with the boy in the first place. The only time the boy was mentioned was when it talked about this feral ability he had, but there was really nothing there about the giant fox. Perhaps, Watts reasoned, the late headmaster had only included that because the boy was a fox Faunus.

But then there was all the talk about 'seals' and a 'Hokage'. It almost seemed like Ozpin had intentionally left out information, like he didn't want there to be any risk at all to said information falling into the wrong hands. Even still, Watts was confident he would be able to piece it together. It might just take a little more effort than it otherwise would have.

The biggest issue he had with it was that it simply didn't seem to exist anywhere. Apparently, it had shown itself at a village called Broadsworth, but one would expect that something like that would have reached the ears of the Queen, or at least the news people.

That was the only other reason Watts could think of as to why the Kyūbi might be included in the boy's file, because the Faunus had been there when it appeared. According to Ozpin's records, the boy, and then the fox, had fought someone named 'Pain', who had proclaimed himself a god. And apparently, he had been powerful enough that many, many people agreed with him, since his power actually spawned a new religion, one that worshipped him.

There weren't any recordings of what he had done, but Ozpin had written that he had destroyed no less than four towns, apparently with little effort. And yet, this boy had fought him, using what was called 'Sage Mode'.

Reading into it, Watts determined that this must have been the power that the girl had said was 'like a Maiden'. According to what the boy had told Ozpin, he accomplished this 'Sage Mode' by absorbing Natural Energy. What Natural Energy was supposed to be, Watts had no idea, but the concept was fascinating nonetheless. That some mere boy could figure something like that out… remarkable. Watts could understand why Salem would want to recruit him.

There were a few notes about some guy named Fukasaku in the Sage Mode section, but Watts dismissed it as trivial. Presumably, he had just been someone whom had helped the boy learn this Sage Mode power.

Now that Watts thought about it… this Sage Mode sounded like it could be learned by anyone. He entertained a few possibilities before returning to his research. It wouldn't do to dwell on things that would likely never happen.

This Kyūbi still bothered him, though. He just didn't understand how no one had reported seeing it anywhere yet, if it was truly as large as Ozpin said. Watts shook his head, and instead of thinking about it too much, decided to head out to find these villages that he had pinpointed.

* * *

"So then," Naruto laughed. "While I'm on this motorcycle, heading down the highway, the mech slides right off of it, way down to the ground." He took a pause. "Of course, Yang found this whole thing hilarious, and I swear she almost drove straight off the edge after it."

"What happened next?" Kali asked, apparently enthralled.

"Well, we jumped down after it, and then this tiny girl lands on top of it, just sitting there with her umbrella," Naruto continued. "And this girl, she just stares at us like she can't figure out whether we look like tasty ice cream or people she wants to fight." He paused again, looking up at the ceiling. "But anyway, tell me about Menagerie. What's it like here?"

"Oh, it's lovely, really. It's warm eleven months out of the year, and scorching hot the other one, but we make do. The Faunus are all wonderful, too. No one's nicer than people who have never gotten niceness themselves. But, of course, I'm sure you would know about that."

Naruto frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you had to have noticed it growing up. All the humans looking at you differently, even if they don't realize it. Even humans who aren't racist look at Faunus differently, though they do it with pity, like we need to be coddled."

"I… may have noticed something like that happening. I've noticed, though, that there aren't many Grimm out in the desert. How'd that happen?"

"We… don't know," Kali admitted. "As far as any of the Faunus here know, there have never been any Grimm out there at all. At least, not in the desert close to town. After about two miles, they start to show up again, but they'll never get any closer."

"Huh. That's weird."

"Indeed it is." She snickered. "Almost as weird as Blake reading smut."

Naruto laughed, "You really find that funny, don't you?"

"A little. I just… it's just such a funny thing that my oh-so-stoic daughter enjoys something so… vulgar."

"Where did the book even come from? Who got her into it?"

"I have no idea. I remember her saying something about wanting to read another book like it a while ago, but other than that, I've got no idea." Kali finished making the nightly tea, including setting up the tray. "Right, can you take this to Blake? I want to get her to actually talk to her father. She's just been standing outside his study all day, acting all nervous about 'bothering him'. I don't know why she would be so nervous about it. He's her father. He's always got time for her."

Naruto nodded, not mentioning that Blake was worried how they had reacted the last time she had spoken with them. He took the tray from Kali, exiting the room and looking down the hallway, wondering where the hell he was supposed to go. "End of the hallway!" Kali called after him. "Last door on the right!"

"Thanks Mrs. B!" he called back following her directions. He found himself on some sort of deck, overlooking a brief patch of forest. "Blake?"

"I'm here," she answered, leaning on the rail, looking at the door.

"Your mom wanted me to give you this to give to your dad."

Blake's eyes widened, "What?! No!" She pulled away, but before she did, Naruto placed the tray in front of her hands.

"Blake, just take it. You've got nothing to worry about," he assured her. "Just remember, it's a parent's duty to unconditionally believe in their kids, no matter what."

Blake frowned, looking away, back to the door, "But… what if he-"

"No matter what, Blake," Naruto repeated, echoing his dad. "No matter what."

Blake looked down at the tray, slowly grabbing it, like it might bite her otherwise. "Alright, fine," she relented, taking the tray. Naruto smiled.

"Go get him, Blake. And just remember, he's not gonna hate you, no matter what."

Naruto watched for a moment longer as Blake hesitantly walked through the door, turning around once he felt his job was done. He went back to the kitchen, sitting back down and giving Kali a thumbs-up. She rolled her eyes. "Oh, so I looked into it while you were gone, and I found out that the author of Ninjas of Love actually wrote it based on a really old book that was apparently just like it."

Naruto perked up, "Really? What book could it possibly be based on?"

"They weren't really sure if they were translating it correctly, because it was something like a few million years old, but…" Kali paused, building suspense. "If they were correct, then the title translates to something like 'Icha Icha'."

Instantly, Naruto's eyes shot open, and his expression turned dead serious, "It's called what?"

* * *

Watts stood atop a very tall cliff, looking down at one of the four villages called Konohagakure and Konoha. This one was the oldest, from just over a million years ago. Even now, after all this time, many of its buildings still stood, though not nearly as grand as the old tales described. For one thing, the village was mostly just a crater with some houses in it. In fact, the grandest feature was the cliff he stood on. It had six large and unrecognizable carvings in it, but they seemed to be shaped similarly to faces, just like that old legend described.

Overall, he was disappointed with the place. It had been drastically played up by the old legends and tales, but was little more than a hole in the ground. So much for the 'Mightiest of the Hidden Villages', whatever those were supposed to be. Standing over it, Watts felt as though he had wasted almost a month of research for nothing.

That said, he wasn't going to let it go to waste. The other three villages hadn't even been villages, just wilderness, but this one, the oldest, had remained. Clearly, something was different about it, and he intended to find out what.

* * *

 **Well, I wrap this chapter up with a nice little bow.**

 **And I have nothing to say about this, nothing at all.**

 **Although, I don't know when the next chapter will come. If I have time, it'll be out, at the earliest, on Saturday. However, that's only if I can get out a chapter of Remnants of Shinobi** _ **and**_ **the second chapter of Unprepared by then. Otherwise, I don't know when it'll be out.**

 **Expect other perspectives next time.**

 **Until Chapter 25!**


	25. Chapter 25: Oniyuri

Chapter 25: Oniyuri

"This is… disgusting, Troy," Melissa complained. Troy shushed her, looking up.

The pair was currently in the personal sewer system of the White Fang's biggest prison. Just like they had been for the past three hours. Troy, at present, was trying to determine what lay just above them. He had been searching for an unoccupied room that he might be able to teleport into. He hadn't had any luck yet, obviously.

But where they were now, he couldn't hear any noisy footsteps above them, any loud voices. He decided to take a chance, and motioned for Melissa to grab his hand. They vanished, reappearing right where they were, about five feet up, through solid stone and earth. Troy's gambit paid off, and they found themselves in some sort of corridor. They were completely silent, which allowed them to hear distant banging, something akin to metal struck by wood.

Troy motioned with to Melissa to follow him as he crept down the hallway. Now, more than ever, they needed to be undetected. If not… well, their goal was to free Diana, and they wouldn't very well be able to do that if the entirety of the compound was on high alert for intruders.

But it wouldn't be too difficult, Troy thought. After all, they both knew the plan, and they would be sticking together so that Troy could let them escape easily. The first step of the plan was finding the 'warden's' office, so to speak. Wherever they could find out where each prisoner was kept. After that, it would be a simple matter of heading to that cell, cutting the bars, and having Troy teleport them all as far away as possible.

Easier said than done, obviously. They knew nothing of the prison. No layouts, no maps, no patrol patterns. And they were two students.

Within the first four minutes, they had had two close calls with patrolling guards. Luckily, the walls were quite high, and Melissa came up with the unique solution of just crawling along the ceiling to avoid the watchful eyes of the Fang's guards. Luckily, given that it was the middle of the day, there seemed to be less patrols, and more watching the prisoners.

Soon enough, they found one of the cells blocks, and saw that all the cells were empty. Clearly, all the prisoners were being put to work, or were being fed, or something. However, that might have meant that the warden's office would be empty. They still needed to find it, however. Troy pointed down the block, towards a staircase. His reasoning was that the warden's office would most likely be close to a cell block.

And so, they followed said cell block all the way to the end, only for it to turn into another corridor. Troy looked to Melissa, who shrugged, and started down it. Troy followed his leader, looking behind them to make sure they weren't being followed. Melissa held her ear against a door, listening for noises on the other side. When she heard none, she pushed open the door slowly, peering inside. It was some kind of office, which was at least a step in the right direction. She entered, with Troy right behind her, careful to close the door silently.

She pointed at the filing cabinets on one side of the room, and whispered, "Check those. I'll get these." She gestured to the desk and the folders all over it. Troy tugged on a drawer, but found it locked. He glanced at the door, then, with a quick slash of his knife, broke the lock. It made a small clang sound, but he pulled it open instantly. He rifled through the labels, going from labels like Anima Camps to ones like Prisoner Arrivals. He checked that folder quickly, just to see if he could find Diana mentioned. There were a few mentions of prisoners from Sanus, but none that fit her description. Most likely because all the ones he checked were from within the last month, while Diana would have arrived almost three months ago.

He also checked Prisoner Departures, just on the off chance that he found her mentioned there. To his great dismay, he found a file labelled as 'The Rainbow One'. He pulled it out so quickly that Melissa drew her rifle from her back, before embarrassingly realizing that it was just him. He set it down on the desk, skimming through it for several moments. It definitely sounded like Diana. "This is bad, Melissa. It says she was sent out nearly three weeks ago."

"She… Three weeks… Where to?" Melissa asked. Troy read more of the report, and looked up with confusion.

"She was sent somewhere close to Mistral, but a little northwards of it. Maybe a town?" Troy answered. "But more specifically, it says that she was sent to some guy."

Melissa cocked her head, "Who?"

Suddenly, before Troy could answer, the door handle started rattling, and the pair stared at it in alarm. Troy gestured to Melissa, and she grabbed onto his hand. He gripped the papers tight, and vanished just as the door opened. A confused Faunus glanced around the room, seeing the open folders and cabinets all over. "What the hell?"

Troy and Melissa reappeared nearly two miles away, and Troy collapsed to the ground, exhausted from such a large jump. "Remind… me… to… never… do… that… again," he requested between breaths.

"That was too close, Troy."

Troy grinned at her, as if he was about to laugh, "Yeah, but… two students broke into the White Fang's _most_ _secure_ _camp_." He stood up, chuckling, holding onto a tree for support. They had found themselves in a rather dense forest, judging by the low amount of light breaking through the trees. "Alright… let's get away from here."

"Gotcha," Melissa agreed. "But, I have to ask, who was it that she was sent to?"

"Right," Troy replied, squinting at the papers to try and read them in the darkness of the forest. "I can't really make it out. I think…" He squinted harder, holding it right up to his face. "I can't tell. Do you have any fire Dust?" Melissa pulled her rifle off of her back, switching it to staff form. The end glowed a faint red, giving just enough light to read the paper.

"It says… I don't know who this is, honestly," Troy admitted.

"Some guy named Adam Taurus."

* * *

Instantly, the man extended bladed gauntlets, cackling wildly as he charged right at Ruby. Ren jumped in front of her, trying to surprise the man with an attack from the side. The man blocked it, then the kick that Ren tried to follow up with. Ren shot at him multiple times, only for him to deflect them with his blades. The man slashed down with his right gauntlet, but Ren just managed to catch it with his knife. The man kicked at him, but Ren ducked under it, only for the man to send him flying with a strike to the chest.

The man continued his charge at Ruby, blocking a single strike from her scythe before he kicked her in the chest, sending her sliding back several feet. He followed, slashing with both gauntlets, both attacks of which she barely managed to block.

Just as the man whipped around to kick her, a massive gale of wind slammed into him, sending him flying into the fountain in the middle of the plaza. He stood up, holding his head with a bored look on his face, "Oh, who came to ruin my fun?" He stared straight ahead, at the brazen figure who dared attack him.

A cloaked figure now stood between Ruby and the man, staring intently at him. The new arrival spoke, "Who are you? Why are you attacking these children?"

The clearly insane man cackled with delight, "Oh, oh this is good. This is GREAT!" He looked up at them, maniacal smile plastered across his face. "It's been so loooong since I've any real _fun!_ " He charged at the man on the last word, much faster than before. Evidently, he hadn't felt the need to go full speed. Hell, he might have still be holding it back a bit.

But as it was, he was on the cloaked man in less than a second, slashing both gauntlets downwards in an X. The cloaked man caught his arms, then kneed him in the chest. The insane man put on a fake pout, "Oh, come on, play along, would you? It's so much more _boring_ when you just do that."

The cloaked man glared at him. The insane person rolled his eyes, "Fine. I'll just kill you, then." Once more, he upped his speed, blitzing past the cloaked man with such speed that he didn't even have time to turn before a bladed gauntlet slashed him across the face, sending him flying into a building. He hit the supports right on the bottom, and the entire thing fell down on top of him. The insane man cackled with delight, "Down goes the valiant knight!"

Team RNJR had had the pleasure of watching their would-be savior be smashed through a building, and was rightfully a little taken aback. Jaune shook it off first, raising his shield towards the man, "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Oh?" The man asked amusedly, like this was just a joke to him. "I simply come to whisk one of you away with me, to a faraway land of such delight!"

Jaune stepped back, "What do you mean?" Nora stepped up next to him, gripping her hammer tight. Ruby followed her. The man fixed his gaze on her.

"Oh, yes, I come for only one… the rest are expendable." Without another word, He charged for Jaune, who held his shield tight, even as the man's gauntlets raked against it. He slid back from the force of the attack, but the man was right behind him as soon as he stopped. He spun, planting his heel in the side of Jaune's head. With an awful cracking noise, Jaune flew into a pile of boxes next to the fountain.

"Jaune!" Nora called out, before raising her hammer high above her head. She jumped towards the man, slamming it down onto him, only for him to catch the shaft, and after staring at her with his unnerving grin for several seconds, threw her into the wall behind himself.

Suddenly, the building that had collapsed exploded outwards with a rush of wind, spreading debris all across the plaza. The cloaked man strode out, holding his hand against his stomach. Said hand was soaked with red, but the man walked as though he didn't even feel it. He wrenched a piece of wood of his abdomen, tossing it to the side. "Now I get it… your one of her's, aren't you?"

The insane man tilted his head to the side, "Who are you who knows of our glorious goddess?"

The cloaked man glared again, raising his arms to the man. From his open palms, a torrent of wind burst forth, slamming into the man. By the time the winds died down, the insane man stood in the same place, looking only a little worse for wear, "My, he gives a challenge! Who am I to refuse?"

He rushed towards the man again, only for a surprise arrival to slam him into the ground from above. Qrow leapt off the man, landing a distance away. Ruby noticed who it was first, "Uncle Qrow!"

"Hey, Kiddo," he replied.

"Wait… how are you here?" she asked, cocking her head. Before she got an answer, the insane man stood back up.

"These people and their insistence on dying…" he muttered, looking up at Qrow. "Oh, and if it isn't Ozpin's lackey!" Qrow glared at him. "Well, at least you can give me a challenge!"

Qrow raised an eyebrow, "Look, pal, I'm not sure who you are, but you need to leave my niece alone."

The man cackled again, "Why, my name is Tyrian! And I'm afraid that's not possible… my assignment from Her Grace was to retrieve this young girl." He glared off to the side at the cloaked man, who was carefully watching him. "Unfortunately, _some_ people desire to go against Her Majesty's wishes."

Qrow glanced at him, then his glare deepened into a frown, "What are _you_ doing here? I thought you would've been at Beacon."

The cloaked man stepped forward, "Of course not. I have questions that I need answers to. And I'll only get them from one person."

"Ozpin told you to stay away," Qrow growled.

"And now he's dead, isn't he? Such a shame, for him."

"Not quite."

Tyrian cackled, drawing attention back to himself, "I think we've gone on long enough, don't you?" Without warning, he jumped forwards, throwing his cloak off and whipping around to slam a scorpion tail into Qrow. He caught it, gripping it tight and using it to throw Tyrian at the cloaked man, who slammed his fist into Tyrian's back, hard.

Tyrian wrapped his tail around the man's arm, using it as leverage to flip him over top of himself and slash at his chest with his gauntlets. The man bent backwards, ducking under the attack, while at the same time Qrow came up behind Tyrian, swiping at him with his blade. Tyrian spun, holding his gauntlets up to block. Just as he did, he raised his foot up, slamming it into the side of Qrow's head.

Qrow slid away, but stayed upright, holding his sword up towards the madman. Said madman swept his foot under the cloaked man's legs, setting off him balance. He took his chance to slam his elbow into him, smashing him into the ground. Qrow rushed forth, trying to take Tyrian off guard. His sword slammed, once again, into Tyrian's gauntlets, which sent out a shockwave from the force. Tyrian cackled again, firing his gauntlets at Qrow even as he held them against his sword. Qrow leapt back, while the cloaked man stood, clutching his abdomen.

Qrow called to him, "Look, I don't like you, but I'm willing to ignore that if you could actually help me fight this guy."

"Sorry if I'm a _little_ out of practice after so long. Grimm don't exactly give much challenge." He dropped his robe, revealing a deep purple shirt and black pants, mostly covered by a tan robe, with sandals for shoes. His hair was a very dark black, and came down to about his shoulders. "But fine, I can at least put in a little effort."

Qrow shook his head, facing Tyrian once again, "It's two against one, pal. Give it up."

Tyrian laughed at his proposal, "It may as well be none against one. You two are like bickering children."

Qrow scowled, "Fine, have it your way!" He charged, slashing at Tyrian while the madman jumped backwards bit by bit, avoiding each slash. Finally, Tyrian's foot hit a piece of rubble, and he stumbled for just a moment, long enough for Qrow to slam his blade into him. Or rather, into his tail. Dust flew up from the impact, making a small cloud around them.

Qrow leapt back, just as the tail stabbed at the place where he had just stood. He landed next to the formerly cloaked man, still unidentified. Ruby ran up next to him, followed closely by Ren. Qrow glanced at her, "Ruby, stay back."

"No! I'm not going to just-" She was cut off when Tyrian flew from the cloud of dust kicked up from before, straight for her. Qrow jumped in front of her, holding his blade towards Tyrian. The scorpion Faunus pressed off the ground with his hand, flipping over Qrow. Before he had the chance to attack Ruby, a blast of wind launched him to the side. Qrow gave a nod of appreciation to his ally.

Tyrian stood, glaring, "You're beginning to annoy me. You stand in the way of the Queen's wishes."

"Funny, I can't seem to care," Qrow growled, brandishing his sword.

The still unidentified man stepped next to Qrow, "You really should have left when you had the chance."

Qrow shot towards Tyrian, faster than a bullet, holding his sword over his head. Tyrian held up his gauntlets to block, again, but Qrow stopped just short, using his momentum, even as he was lowering his sword, to swing the massive blade right into the madman's side, with no tail to block this time. The blade stuck for only a moment, before Tyrian leapt away, holding his side, while red spurted between his fingers.

"You… You…" Tyrian spoke with an underlying seething rage. Qrow smirked at him. Before Tyrian made another move, he felt a foot impact the back of his head, and he went flying back towards Qrow. He caught himself, and looked back to see that the other man had snuck up on him, using that strange wind power to empower his kick. Tyrian glanced back and forth between them, then backed towards the arch behind him.

Suddenly, he let out a scream, charging right past Qrow, who seemed so taken aback by the sudden action that he didn't even have time to react when the madman blitzed past him, headed straight at Ruby. The young girl barely could hold up her scythe in time to block just one of his gauntlets. The other bladed gauntlet hit her leg, sinking into it with a horrible sound. It was odd, though… he didn't seem to be aiming for anywhere vital. Regardless, Ruby released an agonizing scream of pain, dropping her scythe from her loss of focus. Qrow was right next to them in an instant, dragging his own scythe through the man's middle.

Tyrian wrenched his arm free of Ruby's limb, eliciting yet another scream from her- music to his ears, really- and leapt back from Qrow and her. Blood was flowing down his front as though it was a waterfall, but he seemed to be reveling in it. Qrow fixed him with a glare that spoke of bloodshed and pain, but he smirked back. He was vaguely aware of the other man standing behind him, but being able to finally stab something had elated him so much he didn't care.

But then he took a moment to consider his situation. One, he couldn't possibly take the girl against these odds. Two, he had just horribly wounded that girl that he was supposed to bring back to the Queen. Three, he might actually die without completing the task that Her Majesty wanted him to do. His delighted, cocky visage turned sour, dejected, and very frightened. "No… No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

Even with his bloodied abdomen, he stepped forward, but reconsidered when not only Qrow, but also the other man, and the students all stood between him and his quarry. "She'll… She'll… She'll forgive me… right? She'll forgive me, right?" He seemed to be asking himself the question, more than anyone else. He shook his head, then turned and ran away, leaving them behind. Qrow looked as though he was about to follow, but Ruby collapsing from shock and blood loss stopped him, as he held her up, laying her down slowly.

"Easy, Kiddo," he muttered, trying to calm himself. "Take it easy. You'll be fine. You'll be ok. Nothing bad'll happen."

"Will she be alright?" Jaune asked, crouching down and staring at Ruby with eyes full of concern.

"Now isn't the time to worry about her," the stranger said. "We should chase him down and find out what he knows."

Qrow glared at him, "This wouldn't've happened if you had helped! Or hell, if you hadn't been here, if you'd listened to Ozpin! Now get the hell out of here!"

"I still need answers."

"I don't really give a damn what you need!" Qrow shouted. "If you want to find him, go do it yourself!"

"Fine. But don't expect further help from me, Branwen."

"Fine by me, monster."

The man left, running in the direction Tyrian had run in, obviously chasing after him. Qrow took off his cape, wrapping it around Ruby's leg. Jaune broke the silence first, "What… Who was that? Why was he after Ruby?"

Qrow sighed, picking his niece up in his arms as he stood, "What do you know… about fairy tales?"

* * *

 **Alright, so it's a bit of a weird ending, but just bear with me.**

 **As for the mystery man… well, he shouldn't be too hard to guess at, but I've got an elaborate plan involving him. Something I haven't seen anyone do yet with this type of fic.**

 **Next chapter will be Watts' and Naruto's POVs.**

 **Until Chapter 26!**


	26. Chapter 26: Unanswered Questions

**Right, just quick answer for a guest reviewer recently: I have reasoning that will be laid out within the story as to how Jiraiya's book lasted so long. Just have a little faith, and a little patience. In my opinion, it's quite clever, in its own way. I'm actually curious if anyone can guess it. It's something that makes sense, given just a little thought.**

* * *

Chapter 26: Unanswered Questions

Watts stared around in amazement. Despite his initial disdain for the ancient village, the archeologist within him was ecstatic, thinking up all the things he could learn from this village. For now, though, he had a job to finish. The boy, and all his history. Obviously, the boy couldn't be from this village. Simply put, it was impossible. The village was far too old.

That said, the boy had had that book. The one written in the language of the time when this village would have existed. Not only that, but the author had listed his hometown as this village as well, leaving Watts answerless. It was possible, however minute a chance it was, that the book had either survived or had been republished enough throughout history that it survived even to this day.

But it didn't seem likely. Watts was rather puzzled, overall. And yet again, he found himself thinking it to be incredible how he finally had a question of his answered, only for several more to spawn from the answer he was given. He was missing something, something huge to this mystery, to this enigma of a boy.

That said, the village of Konohagakure was a marvel of history. To have survived this long was incredible for anything, no matter how well built it was. Without any maintenance on any of the buildings for however long, they should have simply been dust by now. Not to mention the wealth of knowledge of the past that he could accrue. This village was from just after recorded history began. The book he had found it in was from nearly two thousand years ago, back when Salem had started amassing knowledge. It had been remarkably well preserved in her library.

But that was beside the point.

Watts had been in the village, wandering around, for almost three hours now. In contrast to his initial observations that it was simply a couple of buildings in a crater, it actually seemed to be remarkably well designed and seemed to have been very well populated. Watts wondered why it was abandoned.

He decided to just head for the largest building in the village, a red one that stood close to the cliff north of the village. It was made entirely of wood, just like every other building that he had inspected. He was curious as to why that was the case.

The moment he pushed open the door, it fell off its hinges and onto the ground, sending dust up everywhere. It seemed that this village was rotting away, after all. He made a note to be more careful next time. He entered the building, looking around the entry room. Once again, everything was made of wood. The seats, the desks, all of it. The only things that weren't were the windows, and the mounds of dust. It was as if someone had carved a block of wood to look like a building.

What looked to be a receptionist's desk stood against the left wall. He walked over to it, peering over to see what might be behind it. Nothing, as he should have expected. Even if these buildings had survived, it was highly unlikely that anything else would have. The only way they might have is if they were preserved somehow, protected from the elements. And with how much dust was in here, it clearly was open to them.

Watts glanced at the stairs, wondering if they were even safe to climb. Against his better judgment, he tried to walk up them. To his surprise, they didn't fall out under him, and he was able to get up to the second floor, where he was left in a darkened hallway. He went left, taking the first door he found along the wall.

Once again, it was a wooden room. There were windows along the far wall, allowing the light of the sunset into the room. But besides that, the room almost seemed to have a faint glow to it. It was like when someone emitted Aura, but it was coming from the walls, floor, and ceiling. He ran his hand along the wall, wondering where it was coming from. That's when he noticed that this room had absolutely no dust in it at all. It was actually almost pristine.

He frowned, confused at how that was possible. The room itself was almost empty, in truth. The only piece of furniture in it was a semicircular desk, and a chair behind it. Watts walked around it, sitting in the chair. Amazingly, it held his weight without breaking. He tugged on the drawers of the desk, only to find them locked. Not one to be stopped by something so simple, he broke the lock by forcing the drawers out. Inside, to his delight, amazement, and utter shock, there were piles of papers, shining white like they were brand new.

Like an excited child, he yanked the first piece of paper out of one of the drawers, skimming over it quickly with the same translator he had used on the book. It appeared to simply be paperwork covering some sort of mission assignment. In very formal language, it detailed the mission of a search party to find the Nine-Tailed Fox's 'Jinchūriki', whatever that was meant to be, and bring it back to the village. It also noted that this 'Jinchūriki' was in a place called Mount Myōboku. It was odd, though. The translator could get everything into English except for the word Jinchūriki. Whatever it was, it seemed to relate to the Kyūbi that Ozpin had been investigating. After all, the Kyūbi was also meant to be a nine-tailed fox. Chances were, they were the same thing.

At the bottom, it was signed by- and this got Watts interested- the Sixth Hokage. Below the formal title, there was a name, presumably belonging to this Sixth Hokage, which read out to be Danzō Shimura. But it was the word Hokage, that same word from Ozpin's notes about the Kyūbi, that got Watts interested. It seemed, seeing this paper, that the Hokage was the leader of this village.

He set that paper aside, and pulled another out of one of the lower drawers, one which seemed to be older than the first one. With a quick scan, he could see that this one was another mission assignment. Only this time, they were after someone by the name of Sasuke Uchiha. Watts kept reading, but had an immense shock when he read the names of the people sent on this mission from over a million years ago. They were Shikamaru Nara, Neji Hyūga, Chōji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka, and, most importantly, Naruto Uzumaki. The same name as the boy he was after. From over a million years ago.

When the moment of shock passed, Watts remembered the book. The one who had a man character with the same name. He thought for a moment, deciding that that book must have been based on the boy whose name he saw on the paper in front of him, and then the parents of the boy Watts was after had decided to name their child after a book. He nodded to himself, deciding that that made sense. At least, it made more sense than one boy living for a million years. No one could survive that long.

He shook his head, returning to searching through the desk. He found that most of the papers were either mission assignments or complaints from the citizens of the village. It was odd, though. Sometimes, words would keep popping up. Words that were foreign to the translator. Nonsensical words like chakra, or jutsu. The more he looked into it, the more he found that those two words almost always appeared on the same paper. He wasn't completely sure about it, but it seemed that chakra was what the people of this village had called Aura, and jutsu were what they had called Semblances.

When he finally looked up from his new mountain of papers, he realized that the room was slightly brighter than it was before. He turned around, looking out the windows to see that the sun was rising. He had been reading through the papers all night.

He couldn't worry about that at the moment, however. He had to find a way to get all of these papers onto his Bullhead. Granted, not all of them were important, but they were still stockpiles of ancient history.

* * *

"It's called what?" Naruto repeated, dead serious in his tone. Kali didn't seem to notice.

"Icha Icha. Kind of a weird name, really," she answered. Naruto blinked several times. Icha Icha. Icha… Icha. The book his master had written. The master who had died over a year ago, in another world, or so he had thought. But if it existed here…

"Yeah, it is a weird name," Naruto replied awkwardly. "Where did it come from?"

"Oh, it's some thousand year old book that the author of Ninja of Love found in an antique store."

"A thousand years?" Naruto asked. Not a long time, really.

"That's how old he said the publish date made it. He talks about it at the back of the book."

Naruto sat down in one of the chairs that was pulled out from the table, running his hand through his hair. He didn't understand what this could even mean. Was he in another world? Was he a thousand years into the future? He rubbed his eyes, deciding that he would get farther if he talked with somebody else about this.

"Kurama, you there?" he asked, facing the giant cage. He heard a rumbling just inside.

" **Of course I'm here. And yes, I heard what the woman said."**

"So what does it mean? Where are we?"

" **How should I know, brat? I'm just as taken aback as you are. But it does explain some things I've noticed, that is if we are just in the future."**

"But how is that possible?"

" **I don't know either. Perhaps that pond of the toads' used Space-Time Ninjutsu to transport those who pass through it. Either way, it's definitely linked to this."**

"But then… what about everyone else?"

" **We know what happened to them, brat. The human with the Sage's eyes killed them. He told us himself."**

"But what happened to all to the other villages? What happened to chakra? Could it all have just disappeared in a thousand years?"

" **It may have. However unlikely it is, people may have simply forgotten it, and it faded away with time. Perhaps, it transformed into this Aura that people here use. Maybe Aura appeared when humans needed a weapon against the Grimm that they now battle."**

"But where did the Grimm come from? They couldn't have just appeared one day, right?"

" **How should I know?!"** Kurama yelled, annoyed by the incessant questioning. **"Perhaps they were a mistake of some fool somewhere. Perhaps they were created by someone like the Sage to wipe humanity off the planet."**

"Wipe humanity off the planet?" Naruto questioned.

" **Yes, brat, to kill them all. Now, that woman seems to be asking you something. Go bother her."**

Naruto was ejected from his mindscape, finding himself hearing Kali ask him if he was alright. He nodded, "Oh, yeah, fine." He stood up. "Just laughing about the book again. Uh… I'm just gonna go find Blake real quick. I'll be back." He walked out of the room, no doubt leaving Kali remarkably confused.

He strode down the hallway again, following the route outside. Blake wasn't out here this time, most likely because she had taken the tray of tea into her father's study. He was about to open the door, but stopped just as his hand reached the handle. It wouldn't do for him to interrupt them. Blake needed to reconnect with her family, especially she apparently insulted them the last time she saw them.

He took his hand away, walking over to the railing and leaning against it, trees to his back. He watched the door, still trying to comprehend this new news that he was a thousand years into the future.

Suddenly, he heard the faintest of sounds behind him. He shrugged it off, since it was just a branch cracking. Then he frowned. The sound had come from up in a tree not too far behind him. And he wouldn't imagine that any animals large enough to break a branch up in a tree would be awake at this time of night. He whipped around, expecting to see a Grimm, like an Ursa or Beowolf. Instead, he was greeted with darkness, with nothing visibly stalking through the forest. He shrugged, turning back around and leaning against the railing. This time, though, he closed his eyes and listened closely. Mostly, he just heard crickets chirping, and the occasional owl. But then he heard one noise, one very faint noise, a noise that sounded oddly like someone breathing heavily, coming from just behind him, right below the deck, as if someone was pressed against it, hiding from someone else.

He opened his eyes, turning around to face the woods again. He readied himself for any kind of reaction, and looked straight down. He was met with the sight of what must have been a terrified White Fang member, mask and all. He vaulted over the railing, landing facing the Faunus that had been watching him. He hissed, trying to speak quietly enough that Blake and her father wouldn't hear, "Who are you?"

She pressed herself even more firmly against the wall, like she was scared to death. She glanced to each side, turning back to him without a word. Suddenly, she took off running to the left, even jumping up into a tree as she went. Naruto watched her for a moment before following. If she wanted to jump through trees, he was all for it.

Naruto backflipped onto the side of tree behind him, crouching down for a moment before pressing off with all the strength in his legs. He shot forward, overtaking the Faunus in only a few moments, before trying to stop and face her again. With his speed, he broke through two trees before he landed against the third one, dropping down to the ground. His back stung lightly from breaking through the trees at such high speeds. The White Fang member stared for a moment before she hung her head, also dropping to the ground, as if giving up.

"Who are you?" Naruto repeated. He wasn't blind, though, and he noticed that her right hand was moving very subtly at her side. She raised her head.

"I was sent here to talk to Blake."

Her hand stopped moving, as though it had done what it was meant to. Naruto spoke again, "Then why were you sneaking around in the trees?"

"I- I thought I saw her on that deck as I was passing by."

"You're lying. Why are you here, really?"

All at once, her demeanor changed completely. Her defeated attitude vanished, and a sharp whip flew forward towards him. Naruto ducked under it, having been half-expecting an attack from her right. He reached up left, grabbing the weapon and wrapping it around his arm, while his right hand grabbed a kunai from his weapons pouch. Then he remembered that he didn't have his pouch with him, since he never put in back on after he put on the kimono. So instead, he grabbed the whip further down its length. He could see a smirk on the girl's face, and he felt a tingling in his hands and left arm.

Her whip crackled to life with lightning, with him taking the full brunt of it. He winced, releasing his right hand, but unable to pull his left arm out of it. While his arm was being fried, he formed Rasengan in his right hand, driving it into the whip. He diverted the course of the lightning, then dispelled it with his Rasengan. At the least, it stopped the flow of electricity to his arm. Finally, she seemed to run out of Dust, and he dispelled the Rasengan. He wrenched his arm free, and moved towards her.

"Why. Are. You. Here?" he repeated, a growl evident in his tone. She cowered backwards, brandishing her now-retraced whip towards him.

"Stay back!" He stepped forward again, and her hands began to shake.

"Relax, I won't hurt you. Just tell me who you are and why you're here." He noticed that her skin and hair seemed to be bright colors. And also, different than they were a moment ago. Weird.

"I'm… I was sent to spy on Blake. My name is Ilia."

"Who sent you?" Naruto asked.

"The White Fang. They… Adam…" She didn't say anymore, just began to back away while Naruto faced back towards the house.

"Adam, huh?" Naruto mused to himself. At the very least, this took his mind off of the news kali had given him. While he was distracted, the girl started creeping away faster, hoping to escape. Naruto turned to face her. "Is that it?" She nodded. "Alright. Don't come back here. Leave Blake alone. Tell the Fang whatever you want, but don't you dare come after Blake again."

She nodded, then turned and ran. Naruto watched her go. He wasn't so cruel that he wouldn't let her leave. She hadn't seen or done anything that was that serious, after all. He turned back to the house, seeing that the door to the study was still closed. He jumped back through the trees, though much slower than before. He landed back on the deck, leaning against the railing as though nothing had happened.

* * *

 **And we're done here. See ya next time.**

 **Until Chapter 27!**


	27. Chapter 27: Carry On

**Sorry for the long wait on this. I just haven't A) Had much time, and B) Really wanted to write.**

 **But, here it is now: Chapter 27**

* * *

Chapter 27: Carry On

"There we go," Qrow sighed, relieved. "That should staunch the bleeding after a while." He sat back, hands drenched in red, and watched Ruby for a moment. His assistant, Jaune, wiped his brow.

"Is she gonna be alright?" Jaune asked. Qrow glared at him, still angry with the other man. "Well… it's just… uh, never mind, sir."

"She'll be fine," Qrow answered, his voice carrying an edge to it. "But that Tyrian, he won't be. Even if he survives his wounds from this fight, I'm gonna make sure to kill him next time I see him."

Ren and Nora sat off to the side of the temporary camp that the group had erected, out in the woods a little ways from the town. Both of them had been watching worriedly as Qrow and Jaune patched up Ruby's leg, neither of them having said a word the entire time it was happening. Nora broke the silence, "Do you think she'll… ya know?"

Ren grimaced, "Die?" Nora shook her head, worry written in her expression. Ren sighed. "I don't know then."

"She'll be fine," Qrow repeated adamantly, as though he was trying to reassure himself. "As soon as the bleeding stops, I can take a look at the wound."

Ren whispered quietly to Nora, "I think he's in shock. That guy's _arm_ was in her." Nora winced, remembering the sight of the bladed gauntlets poking through the back of the young girl's leg.

Jaune spoke up, "But you still haven't told us: Why was he after Ruby? Who was he?"

Qrow sighed, "You're right, I haven't. But I'd prefer to tell Kiddo along with the rest of you. For now, just make sure we don't get snuck up on."

Jaune relented, standing up and walking over to a tree, where he sat back down facing Ruby. Qrow picked her up and set her next to the fire. "Just keep warm, Ruby." He sat back again, accidentally knocking his flask onto its side, spilling its contents out. But Qrow didn't take his eyes off of Ruby, like he was afraid she'd disappear the second he did.

Several hours passed, and Ren, Nora, and Jaune had all fallen asleep. The sun started to crest the horizon, casting a long shadow across their campsite. The fire, thanks to Qrow's continual efforts, was still blazing high, which no doubt was helpful to Ruby.

Qrow himself was still watching Ruby, as attentively as hours before. A light breeze blew through the campsite, and Qrow's hand flew to his blade. He relaxed it after a moment, sighing. "Come on, Kiddo. Just wake up already." He leaned back against the log behind him. He muttered to himself, "This is why I stayed away…"

Soon enough, the other three students began to stir. Ren was first, cautiously watching Nora as he sat up. He glanced over at Ruby, noticing Qrow in the same position he had been in the previous night. Ren frowned, wondering why the fire was still so high. He supposed Qrow must have taken care of it during his watch.

Jaune and Nora were up not long after him. Nora stretched her arms over her head and out to her sides, yawning heavily. Jaune got up immediately, and headed over to Ruby. Right as he passed Qrow, the huntsman reacted on instinct, pointing his sword straight at Jaune's neck. "Oh, it's you," Qrow muttered, lowering his sword.

"Anything?" Jaune asked desperately. Qrow shook his head, and Jaune sighed, looking down at Ruby with eyes full of worry. "She'll be ok, right?"

"Yeah. She's tough; she'll pull through alright," Qrow reassured him. "She just might take while to wake up. It took us too long to stop the bleeding."

Jaune dropped onto a log, arms resting on his legs, "But how long will it take? Should we keep going to Haven or wait for her to recover?"

"I guess," Qrow sighed, rubbing his temples. "We should get to Haven first. They'll have advanced medical equipment there, as well." He stood up, glancing around. He strode over to the pile of wood he had gathered, and grabbed two long, sturdy-looking branches. He turned back to Jaune, throwing them to him. "She won't be happy about it, but I need you to make a stretcher out of her hood. I can't carry her in my arms the whole time, not if we need to fight."

Ren and Nora had gathered their packs, and walked up next to Jaune. Ren grabbed one of the branches, "I'll help you."

"Good. It'll go better if you two carry her and let me take the lead," Qrow said, turning away. "Make it quick. If you want to get to Mistral before Salem's lackeys, then we'll need to hurry." He began to walk away, back towards the path. Jaune and Ren quickly tied parts of Ruby's cloak to the branches, and laid her gently on it. Nora followed Qrow, with Ren and Jaune just behind her, carrying Ruby.

* * *

"So, we need to get all the way to Mistral?" Melissa questioned, looking over the documents and the map once again.

"Yes, Melissa, we do," Troy answered. "It shouldn't take too long. We'll get there in less than a week, if we keep a good pace." He turned back forward, staring down the long road to the mountains. It had only been three days since their very close escape from the White Fang compound, and he was still very on edge. Every noise he heard sounded like the Fang was about to pounce on them, at least to Troy.

Melissa was much more at ease, given that they had already escaped from the Fang twice, even once while being close to cut in half by a chainsaw. So, she wasn't worried about being caught or ambushed. That said, she hadn't lowered her guard, either. Her hand was ready to jump to her weapon at a moment's notice.

The Grimm hadn't been idle, either. They had already seen a small pack of Beowolves, but the Grimm hadn't noticed them. At least, not at first. Still, seven Beowolves weren't much of a challenge, even to those with little training. They dispatched them quickly.

By now, Melissa and Troy seemed accustomed to the dangers of the wilderness, or at least the common ones like Grimm attacks and Fang Patrols. Unfortunately, the Dust that Melissa had brought along, nearly all of her Ice and Burn Dust, was running low. While not a huge issue, it would make it more difficult to fight off any hostile attacks without Dust at their disposal.

However, that wasn't a terrific concern of theirs at the moment. The more pressing matter was their food situation. They had none left, and all the forests around the area seemed to be bare of any wildlife. They had both finished off the last of the meat hours ago, and Troy was beginning to feel hunger start to gnaw at him again.

"We need to find a deer, or maybe a chicken," he muttered. Melissa raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, yes, a wild chicken in the forest. I think we'd be better off trying to find a rabbit, or a nearby town."

"I suppose. Still, I don't remember if there are any around here."

"Then let's just teleport to the mountain."

"If we do that, I'll be completely drained."

"Yeah, but we could rest after that. Or I could look around and find food for us."

Troy sighed, looking off at the distant mountain. He turned to Melissa and held out his hand, "Alright, fine. We'll try it your way."

Melissa grinned, and took his hand. A second later, and following an unfamiliar warping feeling, Melissa found herself skidding along the dirt road, flat on her back. She slammed against a wooden railing on the side of the road, stopping her in her tracks. She raised her head, ready to question Troy, only to see that he wasn't there. She cocked her head, confused by his disappearance. They had teleported together, so they ought have shown up in the same place.

"Troy?" she called. She looked around, taking note of the fact that, yes, they had teleported to the foot of the mountain. She got to her feet, and dusted herself off. She frowned, wondering where in the hell Troy had ended up.

Suddenly, the air in front of her fractured, and twisted into a spiral. Troy fell out of what looked like broken air, smoke curling off of him. "Troy!" she yelled, running over to him. "Troy, what happened?" He didn't respond, and Melissa frowned again. "Troy?" She put her fingers on the side of his neck, checking his pulse. He had one, but it was faint. And as far as she could tell, he either wasn't breathing or was barely breathing. "Shit… Shit shit shit…" Thinking quickly, she grabbed his arm, and wrapped it around her shoulder. She stood, bringing Troy with her.

Melissa looked up the mountain, then back at Troy, "Sorry, Troy. But we've gotta get over this thing." She began to float, feeling Troy's weight completely on her shoulders. "Oof… God, you're heavy." She climbed higher, and started moving forward as well. The climb was slow, given that she wasn't used to carrying someone with her. "Just stay with me, Troy… Just stay with me…" As Melissa felt the air get thinner, she lowered herself back down to a safer level. She needed to keep Troy breathing easily. His pulse was getting weaker and weaker. She wasn't sure what the issue was, either. Chance was, he had 'drained' himself, whatever he had actually meant by that.

"Just keep on breathing… Just keep on going…" Melissa reached the ground of the mountain, but there was still about a hundred meters to go upwards. She glanced at Troy, worried about him not being able to breathe. "Ok… Ok… Let's do this!" She surged forward, moving up the trail as quickly as possible. "Come on, come on."

Halfway to the top, Troy started coughing ferociously. Melissa glanced at him, but kept going. If he was coughing, he had air. She crested the hill, and saw that it was a very gradual slope back to the bottom of the mountain. "Just bear with me, ok?" Melissa mumbled, though she wasn't sure if it was to herself or Troy.

At the bottom, she could make out a small house, with smoke coming out of the chimney. She smiled with relief. "You see that Troy? You'll be ok!" Troy had stopped coughing, and his breathing was getting slower and slower. Melissa turned back to the trail, and began to descend. With luck, she'd be able to get help in time.

* * *

On a tall hill, in the highest tree, a man, cloaked in purple, gazed out2 over the sea from his perch on a thick branch. His focus was on an island in the distance. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. To himself, he muttered, "Soon… I'll get my answers from you." He dropped from the tree, and a gust of wind blew from behind him, helping launch him towards the ocean.

* * *

 **Right, sorry for the short chapter. But I felt that it had taken long enough to write this small amount. I don't know what it is, but I haven't been that interested in writing recently. I think I'm getting back into it, but just bear with me. I should have another chapter of Remnants of Shinobi ready soon. So, soon.**

 **Also, not dead.**

 **Until Chapter 28!**


	28. Chapter 28: Truth

Chapter 28: Truth

Naruto felt a cold breeze pass by, for the third time in the ten minutes he'd been waiting. He was leaning back against the wooden railing of the deck, eyes closed, looking very relaxed. Blake still hadn't emerged from the interior, so he hadn't moved. Though by now, he couldn't quite remember why he had wanted to talk to her. Or, rather, he knew, but he had forgotten why it seemed so pressing. It didn't change much, did it? No matter if this was the future or an alternate world, it didn't change his situation, and it didn't change that he had friends here now.

So he didn't know why he had thought that this was so pressing an issue. However, his thoughts were interrupted when Kali came around the corner, eyebrow raised. When she saw Naruto leaning against the edge, she cocked her head, "I thought you were going to talk to Blake?"

He nodded, looking at the door, "I thought it would be rude to interrupt them."

Kali smiled, and glanced at the door, "Well, we might as well do it anyway, right?" She walked right up to the door, without any hesitation, and threw it open. Then she stepped out of the way so that anyone sitting in the study would only be able to see Naruto leaning back against the railing.

Blake stood immediately upon hearing the sound of the door opening, and turned to stare at him, "Naruto?! What are you doing?"

Naruto glanced at Kali, who was trying not to laugh. He sighed, "Nothing. I was waiting here for you to be done talking."

Blake stepped around the couch, coming towards the door and towards Naruto. She stopped just in front of him, and frowned at his left sleeve. "What happened to your sleeve? Actually, better question, why are you wearing another kimono?"

He looked down, and saw that his sleeve had been burned badly by the electric whip earlier. He shrugged, looking back up, "There was someone in the woods, spying on the house. Someone in the White Fang named Ilia."

Blake stiffened, staring at Naruto with all seriousness, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. She had a whip thing. It burned my sleeve."

She glanced at her parents. Her mother looked worried, while her dad seemed furious. She faced Naruto again, "Did you find out why she was spying? Naruto shook his head.

"She didn't say. Just that that Adam guy sent her."

Blake scowled immediately, "Adam? Again? Can't he just leave me alone?" She closed her eyes. "Alright, fine. If he wants to see me, then he'll get to. Naruto, we're going to go after him now." She turned to face her parents. "Mom, Dad… thanks for everything. But we need to go now. We'll come back."

Her father nodded solemnly, and looked at her with a sort of pride shining in his eyes. "You take him down, Blake." Kali nodded in ferocious agreement. Then, with a glint in his eye, he continued, "And when you do, I'll make sure everything's ready for the wedding when you to get here!"

Suddenly, all the seriousness of the moment drained, as Blake blushed a deep red and her parents both laughed. Naruto grinned, stifling his own laugh. Blake shook her head, then turned to Naruto, "How soon can you be ready to go?"

"As soon as you are."

Blake grinned back at him, "Good. Go get your stuff, and be ready to go."

Naruto nodded, and ran back inside. He reentered the bathroom, finding his haori was now hung neatly and freshly washed. Kali was efficient, he had to admit. His pants were folded under it. He took off the kimono, put on his pants, and threw his haori on. He strapped his weapons pouch to his belt, and his chokutō to his side, and put his sandals back on. He was ready to go.

He exited the bathroom, finding Kali walking down the hallway. She stopped and stared at him for a moment, "Oh. Well, I was going to tell you that your clothes were washed, but you clearly found that out." She glanced behind herself, then back at him. "Hey, can I ask that you make sure Blake stays safe? I know she can handle herself, but Adam is out of her league. She can't take him on. Just… make sure my baby girl comes home, ok?"

Naruto nodded, and gave his signature thumbs-up, "It's a promise!"

Suddenly, Kali embraced him, "Thank you, Naruto Uzumaki." She turned away quickly, but he still had time to see the tears in her eyes.

As Naruto waited by the front door, he meditated. Well, it looked like meditation. But in reality, he was thinking back to the Fall of Beacon, to everything he had seen Adam do. The guy was quick, he knew that. But he had also absorbed the Rasengan. So, maybe he had some kind of absorption Semblance, where he absorbed energy and returned it. Based on his follow-up attack, it was something like that.

With any luck, there was a limit on how much energy he could absorb at once. It would make it easier to beat him.

Out of the blue, there was a knock at the door. Naruto glanced at it cautiously, in confusion. This late at night, he wasn't sure who might have been at the Belladonna's door. He stood up, one hand on his sword's hilt, as he stepped cautiously to the door, resting his hand on the curved hilt for a moment before throwing it open.

Before him, there was a complete stranger.

* * *

Watts scowled at Cinder, disapproving of her presence as he gave his report to Salem. But, nonetheless, he needed to report all of his findings to her. So, he told her about the village, and about its history. He also included that he thought that the boy's parents had some connection to the village. After all, why else would he have a name that was only found there?

His report took him over an hour, as he wanted to cover all of the details. Including how the extremely old village still had paper in at least one of their desks, which he had brought back. He gave Salem several of them, just to back up his report. He was hopeful that he would be allowed to continue looking into it, since it was connected to the boy. But more importantly, he himself wanted to keep studying the old village's history.

"So, I think that the boy is nothing special on his own. I believe that the village itself merits further study," Watts finished. Salem sat with her eyes closed, and her hands crossed in front of her face. Cinder was scowling at Watts, having seen what the boy could do firsthand.

"How can you be sure, with what Cinder here has told us?" Salem asked, opening her eyes. "According to her, the boy had tremendous power."

"Yes, I'm sure he does. But I don't think it is unique to him. As I said, he had told the old headmaster about something called 'Sage Mode.'

"And yet, we've never seen this power before. You shall continue your search for the boy, Dr. Watts. You may return to the village after you've brought him-"

Salem was interrupted by the sound of doors slamming open. Trailing blood across the floor, Tyrian came stumbling in, hunched over as red dripped from his abdomen. He was incoherently muttering to himself, and he wouldn't look up.

Salem glared for a moment, "Tyrian!" His head shot up. "Where is the girl? And what happened to you?"

He fell to his knees, burying his face in the ground. His voice came out muffled, "Oh, please forgive me, your Majesty! It was that Branwen… he protected the girl. He and a stranger. They had to work together against me… But I still wounded her, the girl. She's weakened now, she won't fend off another attack."

Salem regarded him with a very passive gaze, "Very well. You have failed me, Tyrian. Now, leave us."

Tyrian pitifully picked himself up off the floor, and limped his way out, holding his head the entire time. Salem turned back to Watts, "As I said, you may return to that village after you have brought the boy to me. He may either be a formidable ally or a dangerous foe. I will not allow him to become a dangerous foe. He will join us, or he will die."

"Of course, my lady."

"You are dismissed."

Watts turned on his heel, shot Cinder one last dirty look, and left the hall. He was off, it seemed, to finally track down this boy, and bring him to Salem. If only he knew where to start looking. After all, the boy could have been any number of places. He might have been in Vale, or on his way to Haven. Maybe he was elsewhere, like fighting the White Fang, as those hero types seemed to enjoy.

Perhaps he should start with any sightings of unusual power.

* * *

"Naruto Uzumaki?" the man asked, staring at the blond. Naruto didn't rest his grip on his blade, but he nodded anyway. "Good. I need to talk to you again."

"Ok… But who are you?" Naruto asked. "And why do you sound familiar?"

"You don't remember?" The man looked down at himself. "I suppose I look different from the last time you saw me… Hm… Very well. I'm Imperius. We met back when you had your first mission."

"Oh, right. I remember you," Naruto nodded, letting go of the door. "What're you doing here?"

"I had need to talk to you. I need… answers. Something about you is familiar, but I'd never met you before."

"Ok… but I've never met you before, either. What kind of answers, anyway?"

Imperius paused, looking down. "We all have a place we come from, a place we call home. But for me… I have no idea where I started. My first memory is stumbling away from…. A destroyed town." He hesitated as he said it, like he wasn't sure. "But before that, nothing. No childhood, no learning how to fight, not even how I got there. But you… you're familiar. You remind me of something that I can't remember." Naruto raised an eyebrow, but didn't speak. "So who are you, Naruto Uzumaki? Where did you come from?"

Naruto looked back inside the house, down the hallway. Blake wasn't coming yet, so he turned back. "I'm from a village called Konohagakure no Sato. Does it sound familiar?"

"… Yes, it does… but I don't like the sound of it. Where is it located?" Imperius had an uncomfortable look in his eyes, like a bad memory.

"The Land of Fire. Back home," Naruto replied simply, still eyeing the man suspiciously. These questions made no sense, and there was a sense of trepidation that he felt from talking to Imperius. His instincts told him that he should distrust him.

"But where? Who are you?" Imperius repeated, a bit desperately. He put his head in his hands. "You're someone I should know. But where from?"

Naruto felt glad that he hadn't relaxed his grip on his sword. "I don't know who you are. I never met you before that mission." Naruto subtly slid his foot into a defensive position, just in case. He wasn't sure how desperate this man would be for answers.

Imperius closed his eyes, and sighed. Without opening his eyes, he continued, "Ozpin specifically told me to stay away from you. Did you know that? That means that you and I have some sort of connection. And I will find out what it is." He opened his eyes, and Naruto met them. Then he did a double take, at least mentally. He could have sworn… it must have been his imagination.

"What do you want here?" Naruto asked, probing. Imperius shook his head.

"Nothing else. I'll see you again, Naruto Uzumaki. I must… know." He turned away, and walked down the stairs slowly. He didn't look back at all, but Naruto kept watching him just in case.

He was after something more than just a memory. It was as though he had lost his entire being. And yet, Naruto had a gut feeling that told him that that was probably for the best. He shook his head, and returned to his seat, closing the door again.

Soon enough, Blake came out of the hallway, looking around for him. When she spotted him, she gestured for him to follow. He walked with her, as she began to speak, "Here's the plan: We're going to find Ilia. Then we're going to find out where those other two are. And then, we'll make them tell us where Adam is. We're taking him down, once and for all. Got it?"

Naruto nodded firmly, not pointing out the flaws in that plan. For one, there was no guarantee that the other two would know where Adam was currently. For another thing, there was no way to know if what they said would be accurate. But mostly, he was worried that Blake might go too far.

" **Now's not the time to worry about that, brat. Bloodshed might help her on her revenge quest…"**

' _Shut up, Kurama. I'm not gonna let her kill these guys for no reason.'_

" **Is it really for no reason? They're White Fang, aren't they?"**

Naruto didn't respond, not having any way to. They were part of the White Fang, yeah. And they had shown that they were supportive of Adam's mission. They weren't innocent, not by a long shot. But then he looked at Blake, and he saw the rage on her face, kept well hidden from most. But she couldn't hide it from him, not with his training, and not with how he knew her.

' _I'm not going to let_ her _kill them. If it comes to it… I'll do it.'_

" **Oh, you will? You've never actually killed anyone, either. Besides that blue-haired woman and Pain, you've got no blood on your hands at all. And I was really the one who killed Pain, so you've only ever killed once. Do you think you'll be able to stop her by killing defenseless prisoners?"**

Once again, Naruto didn't respond. He refused to let Kurama get into his head like that. Looking a bit foolish, he shook his head, though Blake didn't notice anyway. He stared straight ahead, still following Blake, even though she couldn't have any idea where to go.

"She… I don't know where they might have a hideout," Blake admitted, still walking. "They won't be easy to find, so we might be out here for a while."

Naruto nodded, keeping his senses open for any noise or movement in the blackness of the nighttime. But here could only hear their footsteps and the sounds from millions of insects overlaying one another. Nothing was out of place. Then again, why would anything be? Ilia had been terrified of Naruto, running in fear the second she could. She wouldn't have exactly rushed to come back.

"Be careful, Naruto. Ilia is a lot more agile and deadly than she comes off. If she wants to kill you, she won't play around. She'll go straight for the killing blow. Keep an eye on her."

"Yeah, I know… But don't worry about me, Blake. You focus on taking her down."

Blake nodded, and they both continued walking, heading down the main street as though they had a specific destination in mind.

Naruto paused, looking up, "Any idea where to start?"

* * *

 **I don't actually have any good way to end this chapter, so to hell with trying to bullshit my way to one. Sorry, again, for how long updates have taken. To be honest, it's not going to get better any time soon.**

 **Until Chapter 29!**


	29. Chapter 29: Rock Bottom

**Back to multiple perspectives per chapter. I'm thinking three.**

 **Sorry, all. I've been involved in a horribly toxic friendship over the past months. It's over now, and by God I should have stopped it sooner. Live and learn, as they say.**

* * *

Chapter 29: Rock Bottom

Only managing to bang on the door to the cabin once, Melissa fell to the ground, utterly exhausted. Carrying Troy had been tiring on its own, let alone while barely able to breath from the altitude. She just felt lucky that Troy had been able to make it back down the mountain. She had set him down next to her, then knocked on the door as hard as she could. Hopefully, someone was home.

Well, some divine force was feeling charitable today, because only a minute later, while Melissa was catching her breath still, the door was thrown open, and a kindly old woman looked down at them. "Oh, dear… what happened to you two kids?"

Melissa answered between breaths, "Help… him… please."

"Of course, dear. I'm here for travelers like yourselves, after all. Do you need anything?" As she spoke, the old woman helped Melissa get Troy inside, laying him down on the single bed in the corner. Melissa looked around the one roomed cabin, seeing that it was surprisingly crowded.

Herbs of all sorts hung in one corner, over a stove, sink, and a small counter area. Glass bottles filled with multicolored liquids lined the back wall of the counter, and the cabinet next to it held even more, along with several small bowls. In the middle of the room, a couch and a chair with a leg rest sat atop an old, shaggy, green carpet. Several unopened cans of food, along with many fresh-looking fruits and ears of corn, sat in another corner of the room, the furthest from the door, on top of a table. The room itself was somewhat dim, being lit only by the setting sun and candlelight.

"What happened to the poor boy?" the woman asked. Melissa turned to face her, having not heard the question, being too distracted by looking around the room.

"What? Oh, I… I don't know. He tried to teleport us both to the mountain, but something went wrong." Melissa sat next to Troy, studying him, worry written across her face.

"Oh, my… That sounds like he just overexerted himself. That's simple enough to fix, dear." She reached into the cabinet, pulling out a vial of purple. She hobbled over to the bedside, and tilted Troy's head upwards. "It's a good thing he's out… This tastes horrid." She poured it into his mouth, tilting his head back so that it went down. "Now, just a little rest and he should be perfectly fine." She went back over to the cabinet, putting the vial back inside.

"But dear, why are two kids such as yourselves all the way out here in the country?" she asked.

As Melissa answered, the old woman stepped around the chair, sitting down carefully. "We're… we're students. We're on our way to Haven Academy for the start of the school year. I thought we should go a little quicker."

The woman smiled a little, "Oh, you young ones, always in such a rush. I guess your education is important, hm? To be going already, two months before you need to. Such good kids."

"Uh- Yeah, well, you know. We just miss our school."

"That's sweet of you kids. Especially after that disaster with Beacon. What a tragedy that was…" the woman trailed off. Melissa closed her eyes, holding her arms steady.

"Yeah, it…" Melissa didn't finish the thought, a shiver running down her spine. "How long until he's ok?"

"Oh, maybe an hour before it kicks in. He'll be on his feet very soon, dear, don't you worry."

Melissa sighed with relief, slumping in her seat. She'd've tried getting some rest herself, but with only the strange yet helpful woman present, she didn't think it would've been a great idea. She sat by the bed, alert to every noise outside, as well as the old woman bustling about the cabin, sounding like she was making a drink, such as tea.

"Hey, what was it that you gave him, anyway?" Melissa questioned, realizing that the woman hadn't said.

"Oh, it was just some crushed and mixed herbs. They're going to help him."

"Ok… if you say so," Melissa muttered to herself.

* * *

Qrow wrenched his blade from yet another Ursa, letting its body drop to the ground and dissolve. As per his instructions, Jaune and Ren continued to walk at the same speed, while Nora made sure no Grimm got _too_ close. Qrow handled everything else. As it was, Nora hadn't had anything at all to do but watch him in awe. The scythe master blitzed from Grimm to Grimm, leaving just dust behind. They were making good time, at least.

Another Grimm fell to Qrow, making his count upwards of fifty, just today. As they ventured through the forest that Qrow directed them through, the Grimm seemed to grow more and more frequent. They had barely been attacked at first, but now it seemed like a whole pack appeared every hour. They hadn't seen any huge Grimm, but the Beowolves and Ursai had been relentless. Luckily, Qrow was merciless.

As the last Ursa fell, Nora spoke up, "Why did we come through here again?"

Qrow sighed, and placed his sword back on his belt. "It's a quicker way to the mountains. We need to get Ruby help as quickly as we can." He set his eyes forward, also scanning their surroundings for any more activity. Even seeing none, he didn't relax.

"Is she really that injured?" Jaune asked, brow furrowed as he looked down at Ruby resting on her makeshift stretcher.

"Yeah, she is," Qrow answered, with a slight edge to it. "That blade severed-" He paused. "Never mind. Just keep going. The Grimm are gonna get worse the longer we stay here." A loud screech very far overhead punctuated the comment, as they saw a large Nevermore flying high, seemingly prowling for food. "Now let's go."

The entourage kept moving as he instructed, and even though the Grimm kept attacking, Qrow kept killing them faster than they could so much as roar. Nora whispered to Ren, "He's kinda scary when he's mad." Ren nodded in agreement, hearing yet another Beowolf have its head cut off.

"I think that's all of 'em." Qrow, once again, set his sword back on his belt, and took a drink from his flask. "Now let's go. We're getting through these woods before the sun goes down." Jaune frowned, since the sky was already painted pink and orange. Surely the sun was already nearly gone, yet the forest didn't seem to end any time soon.

Qrow pressed on, no longer looking for any Grimm, just walking hunched over. Nora, on the other hand, kept nervously glancing into the brush for any movement, hand wrapped around her hammer. "We're almost through." Qrow glanced at Ruby, then muttered to himself, "Just a little longer, kiddo. Just a little."

A minute later, almost without warning, the forest just suddenly ended, the trees breaking to reveal a mountain range, and more importantly, a large and impressive city built into it. Qrow kept walking, while the three students both marveled at the city, and wondered how the woods could have just ended so quickly and suddenly. Jaune took in a breath of air, looking up at the brilliantly blue midday sky. "We made it, Ruby," he sighed.

Qrow called back to them, "Hey, let's go! Now!" The three of them shook themselves out of their heads, following his order to follow him. "First thing you should know about Mistral, is that you should never stay in one single place for too long. People start to notice you hanging around, makes 'em suspicious. Second thing you should know? Don't make people in Mistral suspicious. Especially not when you're closer to the lower levels."

"Why? What's wrong with them?" Jaune asked, looking back over at the city.

Qrow grunted. "Nothing. It's the people you wanna ask about. Down there, there's almost no law kept at all. It's a great place to find work for those of… questionable morals. Or, to get yourself killed. I even met some traffickers once. Point is, you wanna watch out." He glanced back at Ruby. "Right now, though, let's get her some better help. She needs it soon." He wasn't wrong. Over the last hour or so, Ruby had gotten so pale that she could probably have hidden herself in snow. She was still losing blood, just somewhat slower.

"I know a place," Qrow said, gesturing to follow him.

* * *

Watts smirked, reading over the list once again. When Salem had sent him to find the boy, his first thought was to check the passengers of different cruise ships and airships that had left Vale after the Fall of Beacon. The airships had been devoid of any leads, but one cruise ship reported a boy with whiskers and a girl with cat ears buying two tickets. It seemed that he found his quarry.

He checked where the cruise liner had been going. It had travelled to a small town near the tip of Sanus, and ended there. It wasn't a mystery to find out what happened from there, so Watts checked which ships had left for the week after the boat had arrived. Only four boats hadn't gone to Vale to help with relief. Two boats had gone to Atlas, one to Anima, and one to Menagerie.

The doctor, just in case, decided to find out who the girl that was with him might have been. It wouldn't take long at all, as she was also a student at Beacon. As he suspected, she took about a minute to find. Blake Belladonna, eh? If she was a Belladonna, then she had family on Menagerie. At least he knew which boat they probably took.

He looked more into that particular cruise liner. The name Naruto Uzumaki was on the list of passengers, as well as Blake Belladonna. But as he read, he frowned. The captain of the boat had apparently led almost all of the four hundred passengers into a small coast town on Anima. He had detailed how a Grimm attack had sunk the boat, and how they had only survived because of a blond Faunus. Given that there was no further mention of this 'blond Faunus', Watts had to assume that the boy had left the group of survivors. At a guess, Watts would say he was headed to Menagerie.

At least Watts had a location to start his search now. Smugly, he boarded a Bullhead, directing the pilot to him to the island of the Faunus. The trip wasn't quick, not in the slightest. Watts spent several hours patiently waiting for the sight of the island in the distance. Part of him was cautious about confronting this boy, given what he had learned. But at the same time, he was looking forward to finally ending this enigma. And besides, the boy was young. He couldn't have that much experience with combat, if any prior to Beacon.

He went over, one more time, all he had learned of the boy's abilities. The thing he was most cautious about was this Sage Mode that he possessed. Beyond that, he didn't seem overly threatening. He was fast, surely, but he probably wouldn't have much power behind his punches. And he would likely tire quickly. All in all, Watts was rather confident in his chances of winning, should it come to a fight. That said, the doctor was no fool, and he would rather have wished to avoid a fight if he could.

All too soon, the Bullhead landed in a desert nearby to the village. Watts stepped off somewhat tentatively, feeling a nervousness overcome him briefly. His instinct told him to leave now. All the same, he waited a moment, and the feeling passed. He set for the town, while the Bullhead took back to the sky, to await his signal.

The town, by now, was dark. Besides the streetlights illuminating the streets, not a single light seemed to be on. No one was wandering the streets either, at this hour. Not that he could see. But as he listened, the deafening silence was broken by soft boot crunching and the sounds of conversation, a street over from him. He listened intently, following as silently as he could. He scaled the building, staying low to the roof as he peered over.

His face split into a smirk when he saw his quarry just beneath him, engaged with conversing with the girl next to him. It was a perfect opportunity to end the confrontation before it even became. He simply needed to overpower the girl, and the boy would be helpless to do anything. And like that, he could avoid the fight. Of course, Watts wasn't sure if the boy would actually care for the girl's safety, so he would need a contingency plan.

He glanced up and down the street, gauging the height of each building and the length of the road. A quick escape would be impossible, knowing the boy's abilities. Instead, Watts would need to distract him. Then again, he didn't even know the boy's exact capabilities, just estimates from Ozpin and other professors who had observed him during his time at Beacon.

Watts wasn't a fan of uncertainty. He hated himself for going against his instincts and his very being, but he decided to take a gamble and use his plan of taking who he assumed was this 'Blake Belladonna' hostage. If it worked, he'd be clear. If not… He couldn't think of failure, not now. It was hard enough to follow them while staying hidden; he wouldn't be able to come up with any plan certain to succeed.

With a deep breath and much hesitation, Watts dropped down, blitzing the raven-haired girl. Before he even reach her, the boy's hand blurred, and Watts found himself, having to duck under a knife of some kind as it streaked past him with an incredible speed. He continued running, but wasn't deaf to the sound of the crack echoing down the alley. The boy stood ready to fight, while the Belladonna was kneeling behind him, pointing her pistol at the newcomer.

Improvising, Watts jumped sideways, trying to aim for the wall to launch himself off of it towards the Belladonna. He hit the wall, but just before he could push himself off, the boy appeared in front of Watts, his fist swinging towards the doctor's abdomen. Watts caught the punch, but the wall beneath him cracked inwards from the force of it. He threw the arm up, aiming his elbow for the boy's nose, mostly to distract him. His elbow was caught by the boy's other hand, and he himself was thrown across the street through a wooden building.

While he had certainly been overestimating the boy, he still needed to be more careful than he was being. He stood, trying to slink back into the shadows, to try again at a sneak attack. Unfortunately, the boy was on him again in a moment, now holding another knife- which seemed to be of Mistrali design- at his throat. "Who are you?" the boy questioned. Watts smirked.

"I am a doctor. And you, dear boy, are very interesting to me. Let's not fight."

The blue eyes glaring at him narrowed, "Then don't attack us."

"I didn't. It was you who threw the knife at me. I simply began to defend myself. As I said, let's all settle down now. We needn't fight."

The knife lowered a fraction of an inch, and the eyes lightened slightly. "Who are you?" the boy repeated. Watts smirked beneath his mustache.

"I'm simply a man who knows someone that would much like to meet you." The knife raised again, but the glare didn't return.

"Who?" he asked. By now, Belladonna had come to the boy's side. She kept her gun trained on Watts, of course, but he wasn't worried about her.

"Why, the Queen. She has much of an interest in you." Even as he said it, Watts felt like it was a mistake to taunt him, even subtly.

He was right, as the glare returned and he found a knife blade pressed against his throat. "Who the hell is 'the Queen'?" the boy asked, an edge entering his tone.

"Relax a little. I'm not here to fight you, boy." Watts calmly raised a finger to push the blade away, but the boy held it where it was.

"Then you can leave. I'm not meeting anyone." He slowly backed away, knife held steady pointed at Watts as he did. Watts stood, cracked his neck, and closed his eyes.

"Oh, you poor boy, you don't decide that." He moved even as he spoke, arm shooting out towards the Belladonna. He grabbed her, and within a moment had a previously hidden blade to her throat. "Now, either you come with me to meet my Queen, or this little kitten has her throat cut open." The boy lowered his knife, a pained expression on his face. "Good boy. Now, come along with me. This could have been easy, you know."

Watts motioned for the boy to walk ahead of him, telling him to head out towards the desert. The doctor made sure to hold the dagger against her throat. He knew now how fast the boy was, so he had to make sure that he had no chance of being bested. "Who's this Queen?" the boy growled.

"Don't worry about that, boy. You'll meet her soon enough." With some difficulty, Watts tapped the device on his wrist, signaling the Bullhead to land. Soon enough, Watts found himself within the small compartment with his hostage still being held at knifepoint and a very angry boy, whose eyes seemed to have slitted pupils.

Well, it already seemed that there would be many more questions, even now that the boy was captured.

* * *

 **Ahem. Well. Here we are. Yeah, it's been a while.**

 **Anyway, unrelated, I'm thinking that I need to rewrite this story entirely.**

 **Until Chapter 30!**


	30. Rewrite Time

Alright, people, I'm going to rewrite this story. I'll get the first chapter up by next Sunday. It's been a long time coming, to be perfectly honest.


	31. FINALLY TIME

It's time for the first chapter of the rewrite. Be ready, because Naruto wasn't. Naruto is lost, with no way back home.

Later today, look forward to seeing Naruto (And not any OCs, probably) return in the new rewrite: The Lost Shinobi


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